Driver who f led fatal crash hands himself in
A driver who fled the scene of a fatal crash says he was drunk at the time and ‘‘must pay’’ for what he’s done.
The Press understands the man handed himself in to police, who’d been looking for him for two days, yesterday afternoon.
A car, which minutes earlier evaded police, ploughed through a fence and smashed into a tree and building at the entrance to Christchurch East School on Gloucester St, Christchurch, about 11.15pm on Friday.
There were five people in the car when it crashed. At least one of them was catapulted from the vehicle. Alexia Chrissy-Marie Noble-Hazelwood, 18, died at the scene.
Three other passengers were taken to hospital, one of them with serious injuries.
Police previously said the driver fled the scene and appealed for him to hand himself in.
About 1.30pm on Monday, the man posted on Facebook saying ‘‘I can’t deal with this . . . I’m on my way to police now’’.
‘‘I wasn’t on the run – I just needed time to cope with what I’ve done.’’
On Monday evening, police confirmed a man was ‘‘assisting police with their enquiries in relation to this crash’’.
‘‘Police are not looking to speak to anyone else in [relation to] this matter.’’
Grieving friends and family have left tributes at the crash site
describing Noble-Hazelwood as an ‘‘amazing, loving, charming and beautiful’’ young woman.
‘‘My heart is broken,’’ one of dozens of messages written in chalk on the footpath says.
A man said he did a burnout in his car at the scene in memory of the teenager.
Nearby residents reported hearing tyres screeching moments before a loud bang on Friday night.
‘‘We felt the crash. It almost felt like an earthquake but . . . more targeted,’’ a resident, who did not want to be identified, said.
The man said he went out to the street and saw one of the passengers, a man, lying on the ground about 10 metres from the car. He was bleeding and appeared to be in a lot of pain.
The car was severely damaged. ‘‘It looked like a wreck.’’ Another resident said he chased the driver as he ran from the scene, but couldn’t catch him. ‘‘He left them to die,’’ the man said.
The Press understands the car was travelling well in excess of the 50kmh speed limit when it lost control.
Some of the passengers were not wearing seatbelts. One of the seatbelts appeared to have been removed from the car prior to the crash. Police previously said the car failed to stop when signalled to do so by police about five minutes before the crash.
‘‘Police had initiated a pursuit but abandoned after only seconds due the manner of driving,’’ a spokesman said.
‘‘It was not being pursued at the time of the crash.’’
The car lost control, mounted the kerb and clipped a tree before it ploughed through a fence and smashed into another tree and the school building.
Skid marks about 100 metres long were marked out on the road by police investigating the crash.
Noble-Hazelwood’s family has declined to comment.
A post on Givealittle, where the family is raising money to pay for funeral costs, says words cannot express all of the ‘‘sadness and loss we are feeling’’.