A Hastings teenager is to be charged with dangerous driving causing injury after a car carrying him and three other youths plunged 150m down Te Mata Peak.
Sergeant Clint Adamson, of the Hastings Police road policing branch, said the 17-year-old had been told he would be summonsed to appear in court, possibly next month.
The charges relate to an early-afternoon crash on April 16, when the car the teen was driving overtook another car on a narrow downhill sprint just seconds after leaving the top carpark and lookout on Te Mata Peak.
The car skidded and crashed over the bank, rolling several times, bouncing off a bluff and coming to rest an estimated 150m away, beside a walkway.
Miraculously, the driver, his younger brother and a third youth walked away with cuts and bruises, but the fourth teenager was taken to hospital with a broken leg and dislocated kneecap.
Mr Adamson said it was possible the driver would be discharged from hospital this weekend, but rehabilitation could take up to 18 months.
The maximum penalty for the charge the driver faces is five years' jail, with a minimum driving disqualification of 12 months.
It is not yet known if the charge will be defended but the youth is understood to have no previous offences, meaning it is unlikely he would be sent to jail.
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