‘My friends are in there’ – sole survivor
A stunned passenger covered in blood sat down and later told shocked witnesses his friends were in a car engulfed in flames.
Josiah Mani, 24, and William Quin died when their Mazda car burst into flames after colliding with a Waste Management truck on King Edward St in Kensington, Dunedin, about 3.30am on Saturday.
Police say speed was a factor in the crash, with the Mazda crossing the centreline at a bend and going into the truck’s path.
Crash aftermath witness Abbey Reid, who immediately called emergency services, said the scene was ‘‘crazy’’.
‘‘It was hard to breathe and it was noisy because you could hear both motors going,’’ she said.
A minute later the car burst into flames, and ‘"I couldn’t see anyone’’.
‘"I was terrified the car was going to blow up.’’
As flames spread around the car, the Waste Management truck driver tried in vain to stop the blaze with a handheld extinguisher.
She was not aware anyone had got out of the vehicle until a man, who looked to be in his early 20s, sat down on the pavement covered in blood.
Reid asked the visibly-shocked man who was in the car.
He told her: ‘‘I was ... and my friends are in there’’, she said.
Reid said it was impossible to get near the car, and at no time did she see or hear anybody inside the burning vehicle.
Those friends, Quin and Mani, are understood to have worked together at Mainland Poultry in Waikouaiti, about 30 minutes north of Dunedin.
Quin, who was from Christchurch and attended Christ’s College, was studying marine biology at the University of Otago.
Mani, originally from Papua New Guinea, studied at Otago
Boys’ High School and Otago Polytechnic.
The sole survivor from the car remains in Dunedin Hospital and has requested privacy.
Reid said there were no skid marks on the road, with the crash happening near a speed camera site.
She believed the driver would have died on impact, given that side took the impact of the crash.
Inspector Amelia Steel said it was unusual for a vehicle to burst into flames in such an impact, and that would form part of the investigation.
Steel did not know who was driving the vehicle, noting the bodies were yet to be formally identified ‘‘due to the ferocity of the fire’’.
Police would look at what preceded the crash ‘‘to prevent this from happening [again]’’.
Officers trained in disaster victim identification were sent to help to identify the men.
Mani was a member of the Kia Toa Tigers rugby league club, which he helped win the region’s grand final last season.
On Sunday, Mani’s rugby league team gathered across the road at the Kensington Tavern to raise a glass, sing and release a single balloon to honour the player.
A video of the tribute shows the team singing to honour Mani, before releasing the yellow balloon – the team’s official colour.
‘‘We are about family, and his family are back in Papua New Guinea, so as soon as we heard we just put the message out,’’ Tigers’ chairman Koben Katipa said. Mani was a ‘‘lightning-fast’’ winger, Katipa said, and never one to shy away from tackling players far bigger than him.
His mother, Esther Mani, paid tribute to her son on social media, saying: ‘‘Life without you seems meaningless. I miss you so much my son.’’