SCOTT ASKEW
The 25-year-old earthmover from Auckland was at the scene of a road accident in Taupo in 2005.
It was the most amount of blood I’d ever seen. If an adult lost that much they’d be in trouble, but this was just a child.
My family has a bach near Turangi and it was summer, New Year’s Eve – the biggest night of the year when you’re a teenager.
Three friends and I were travelling down SH1, past Lake Taupo, after making a quick trip to pick up another mate, Jimmy.
It was hitting dusk but it was still light out.
The area turns from a 100kmh area down to 70. It was sort of a straight road and then you go over a bridge which crossed over the Waitahanui river.
We’d driven past it a few minutes earlier and seen a whole lots of kids. When we came back the traffic had stopped. It had literally just happened, the ambulances hadn’t even got there yet. The boy was in the middle of the road.
I think he’d been swimming, he was shirtless and in togs. It was pretty nasty, there was obviously massive head injuries.
The car was about 100m away from the body, the front and back windscreens were blown out, it was like he’d gone straight through it. I don’t know if the driver had panicked and kept going or if he’d been driving so fast it took him a while to stop.
Everyone in the car looked at each and said, ‘‘Shit.’’
I turned to William and said, ‘‘That’ll ruin your New Year’s Eve.’’
We knew he was dead – the amount of blood, I’ll never forget it.
It was weird, there were lots of people around but nobody was crying. It must have been shock.
The adrenalin would have kicked in and they were just sorting it out, pulling him over to the side of the road and covering him with a blanket.
There was enough people around so we didn’t get out. I was 17 at the time and let the adults deal with this one.
It was holiday time and police were documenting the road toll so I vividly remember reading the paper the next day.
The boy was just 12.