On bail for drugs and driving a stolen ute
The driver of a ute involved in a triple fatal crash near Thames was on bail for methamphetamine offences and had a driving history of speed and crashes.
It was understood 20-year-old Haydn David Clark crossed the centre line crashing head-on into another ute on Thursday night, killing Hauraki couple Ian James Fielder, 66, and Jocelyn Anne Fielder, 64.
Haydn Clark had absconded from his bail address and was in breach of his 24-hour curfew at the time of the crash, a source said.
He was facing charges of manufacturing and supply of methamphetamine.
Clark died at the scene on State Highway 25 west of the Kopu bridge.
His 54-year-old father Jim, who was in the passenger seat, was cut free from the wreck and flown to Middlemore Hospital in a critical condition.
Waikato road police manager Inspector Marcus Lynam earlier confirmed one of the two utes involved was part of an Auckland purchase deal gone wrong and was reported stolen before the crash.
‘‘It was a purchase of a vehicle that went wrong and it was reported stolen, but it is more of a civil matter.’’
A woman reported the ute stolen after she turned up to an Auckland location to pick up the purchase and the vehicle wasn’t there.
Reports the ute was being pursued by police at the time of the crash were incorrect, Lynam said.
Haydn and Jim Clark were heading east towards Thames when preliminary indications show the ute crossed the centre line into the path of the oncoming couple, Lynam said.
The two vehicles crashed head-on, Waikato Senior Sergeant Charles Burgess said.
‘‘Sadly, both the couple in one ute died at the scene, along with the driver of the other ute,’’ Burgess said.
In April 2014, Clark had posted on his Facebook page that he was involved in a serious crash which left him with a broken neck and a car that was mangled and undriveable.
He was fitted with a head brace with screws into his skull for a few months.
In July 2014, the same month he got the head brace off, Clark got his licence suspended for six months after being caught speeding.
On Facebook, he said he had been driving at 170kmh, but only got caught by the police doing 125kmh.
Thursday’s crash brings the country’s road toll to 125 since January 1.
The toll for the Waikato police district alone is 19.
Photographs of Thursday night’s scene show the crash happened on the stretch of road approaching the bridge from Orongo near the start of double yellow lines.
Off-duty firefighters and paramedics were some of the first on the scene.
Extracting the sole survivor was a technically challenging task, Fire and Emergency’s Eastern Waikato area commander Aaron Waterreus said.
‘‘It involved removing the roof of the ute, but they couldn’t get the person out, so they had to actually put the ute back on its wheels to get the patient out.
‘‘To be exposed to that is pretty horrible.’’
While he didn’t attend the scene, Waterreus spoke with the Thames crews several times throughout the evening.
After retrieving the survivor, the volunteers went back to the station and returned later in the night to extract the bodies of the others.
‘‘They went back out ... so they’re exposed to the scene twice, which had to be done.’’
Thames-Coromandel District Mayor Sandra Goudie witnessed the aftermath from her home overlooking Kopu bridge.
‘‘We saw the police and the helicopter landing and then taking off towards Auckland.’’
Finding out the dead couple were locals was distressing.
Sharon McKenzie, who lives near the crash site, was watching television when she heard a helicopter overhead.
Then she saw the flashing lights of emergency vehicles from her living room. She said the stretch between the Kopu Bridge and the Hauraki Road intersection could ‘‘be a bit of a nasty area’’.
McKenzie said the new bridge had fixed the congestion problem, but suggested a roundabout could be put in at Hauraki Road to stop people speeding around the blind corner.
Another nearby resident, who did not want to be named, said he heard sirens and knew it was a crash close by when the ‘‘helicopter came down real low’’.
‘‘I don’t know why it happens ... when you look at crash sites it just makes you wonder how they crash.’’
A man working at a Mobil service station near the scene said it sounded as if the crash happened at a corner, and police cars and fire engines had gone ‘‘screaming’’ down the road shortly after.
It shut down the highway in both directions for more than seven hours. By 4am, the road had reopened. The Serious Crash Unit is investigating.
‘‘I don’t know why it happens ... when you look at crash sites it just makes you wonder how they crash.’’ Nearby resident