Popular student dies in car crash
Waihi College principal has no qualms about closing the school so students and staff can attend Emilie Silberer’s funeral, reports Maryanne Twentyman.
Waihi College will be closed on Friday as staff and pupils mourn the loss of a bubbly student whose death has shattered the close-knit community.
It’s the second time in 18 months students have had to farewell classmates killed in car crashes and principal Alistair Cochrane said it was an emotional time.
Year 13 student Emilie Kirsten Silberer, 17, died when the car she was driving and an oncoming car collided head-on on State Highway 2, near Maramarua, about 4pm on Saturday.
Her boyfriend, Michael Death from Paeroa, was in the front passenger seat of the Nissan Sentra and suffered moderate injuries. The 22-year-old car painter was discharged from Thames Hospital on Sunday.
The female driver and sole occupant of the second vehicle, a Toyota Aurian, suffered critical injuries and was airlifted by helicopter to Auckland Hospital.
Earlier, Emilie had played for the Waihi College 1st XI football team in Thames before travelling to Auckland. The crash happened on their return to Waihi.
Waikato district road policing manager, Inspector Leo Tooman, said fatigue might have been a factor in the crash, in which it appeared Emilie crossed the centre line.
Yesterday, Emilie’s mother Sandy Spence-silberer told the Times how proud she was of her ‘‘beautiful daughter’’ who had her entire life mapped out ahead of her.
‘‘Emilie was planning to join the police force, she wanted to leave school at the end of the year and worked her little tail off to raise enough money to put herself through the police pre-entry course at polytech in Tauranga – she didn’t want to have a student loan,’’ Mrs SpenceSilberer said.