Victims of crash leave young kids
Witnesses says a third car slowed down, then fled. Phillipa Yalden and Audrey Malone report.
Two of the victims of a horror high-speed crash near Hamilton had young children.
Lance Robinson, Hannah Strickett, Paul Desilva and Jason Godfrey were killed when the white Nissan Skyline they were travelling in crossed the centre line and hit an oncoming van on Ohaupo Rd near Hamilton Airport about 10pm on Friday.
The Nissan split in half, killing all four passengers immediately, and leaving the driver with serious injuries. The driver of the Hamilton Plumbing Company van had to be cut free by firefighters. Police are seeking a third white vehicle seen speeding away.
Strickett and Desilva were parents of young children.
A relative of Strickett’s said the family were too heartbroken to speak about the tragedy. ‘‘It’s just too raw, it’s too hard,’’ she said.
Strickett, 24, grew up in Te Awamutu and had recently moved back to the Waikato from Invercargill where she had trained as a beauty therapist. She had recently opened her own beauty parlour and was taking her fouryear-old son on school visits.
Desilva was the father of a young child. A relative said his partner had been taken to Tauranga from Te Awamutu after the accident to grieve.
Robinson, believed to be the owner of the Skyline, is from Te Awamutu.
Police also confirmed a link between Friday night’s horror crash and an earlier incident at a Te Awamutu petrol station, where the driver of a Nissan Skyline was allegedly involved in an altercation with a motorist.
Ohaupo Rd resident Steve Hartland said a driver of a ute, who was one of the first on the scene of the crash, had confronted the Skyline driver about his speeding shortly before the crash.
‘‘He [the driver] tried to pick a fight with him and the girl in the car was mouthing off to him,’’ Hartland said. ‘‘They were overtaking him coming down the Ohaupo hill.’’
One witness, who only wanted to be known as Gina, saw a third vehicle slow down after the crash and then flee the scene. Gina comforted the van driver, whose legs were trapped. ‘‘He said he couldn’t feel his legs. He just wanted to call his fiancee.’’
A company spokesman said yesterday the driver, a plumber, was ‘‘doing well’’ and awaiting surgery.