Crash death teen was riding in boot

POLICE have revealed the name of a teenager who died in a car crash after a police pursuit in Wellington.

He was 15-year-old Bailey Patmore, from Cannons Creek, Porirua.

The teen was in the boot of a stolen car which failed to stop for police on State Highway 1, near the Terrace Tunnel at 2.44am yesterday.

Five of the occupants, including the deceased, were under 17 and another passenger was 21. All were from Porirua, police said.

The death was just one of three on our roads overnight on Friday/Saturday in a horror 12 hours which left eight others in hospital after three separate crashes.

One man died and three others were seriously injured after their car flipped, hit a fence and caught fire at 3am, in Hampstead, Ashburton. Another person died after a crash at Kopu-Hikuai near Thames yesterday afternoon. And a cyclist aged 15 was killed on Auckland’s North Shore on Friday night.

Porirua mayor Mike Tana said Patmore’s death was ‘‘horrific not only for the people involved but also their families and the whole community’’.

Wellington police said Patmore was in the boot of a small hatchback reported stolen from Petone the previous night and spotted by a dog handler.

Five occupants sustained minor injuries and were checked at Wellington Hospital’s emergency department.