Police are shocked at the behaviour of a driver who allowed two boys to ride in a trailer which became detached from his ute and slammed into a concrete bridge.
The boys, aged 14 and 13, are in hospital with serious head injuries after they were thrown from the
trailer on SH35 near Te Kaha on Sunday afternoon.
Sergeant Lester Polglase of Western Bay of Plenty road policing was scathing of the driver's actions.
The man, understood to be an uncle of the boys, was driving along the state highway in a 70km/h zone when the trailer became detached and hit the concrete bridge abutment.
It is not known how fast he was travelling. The boys were thrown at least 7m from the trailer.
"It shows the sheer stupidity of the driver and his lack of care for the kids," said Mr Polglase.
It was illegal to have anyone riding in a trailer and the minimum charge was "allowing a person to ride in a dangerous position".
Because of the injuries the boys received, it was likely that a charge of careless or dangerous driving causing injury would be considered.
"He is responsible for those people in his car on his trailer."
BayTrust helicopter pilot Neil Dodds said he arrived at Te Kaha to find ambulance paramedics stabilising the two boys, who were "in varying states of consciousness".
Mr Dodds took the 13-year-old boy to Rotorua Hospital where he was yesterday in a stable condition.
The TrustPower TECT rescue helicopter airlifted the 14-year-old to Tauranga Hospital.
He was later taken to Starship hospital in Auckland where he was in a stable condition.
The officer in charge at Te Kaha, Constable Jack Fergusson, said he often ticketed drivers in the area for allowing children to ride on trailers.
He agreed the man was likely to face serious charges despite differing accounts of what happened.
"If you carry people in dangerous positions like this, you can expect things like this to happen."
