Two cars involved in a crash at the intersection of Puketitiri Rd and Rotowhenua Rd in the early hours of Sunday are understood to have been street racing. Photo / Warren Buckland
Two cars involved in a crash at the intersection of Puketitiri Rd and Rotowhenua Rd in the early hours of Sunday are understood to have been street racing. Photo / Warren Buckland
Skid marks, broken glass and car rubber is all that is left at the scene of a two-car crash west of Napier in the early hours of yesterday.
The normally pitch-black rural road glowed with flashing lights at 2.43am after a high-speed crash at the Rotowhenua Rd intersection with PuketitiriRd put two men - understood to be street racing - into hospital.
A Hawke's Bay District Health Board spokesperson said two males in their early 20s were admitted to the hospital at 3.55am after being involved in a car crash.
Police said it appeared to be a high-speed crash and two people were taken to hospital; one with serious injuries and the other with moderate injuries.
Both were in a stable condition and were still in hospital yesterday afternoon, the DHB spokesperson said.
The early-morning crash rattled Rotowhenua Rd resident Dermott McCaughan, who said he and his wife awoke to noise so loud they thought it was an explosion.
He said he dialled 111 and, when told the crash had already been reported, made his way to the scene.
"One of the guys was running around because he couldn't work out where his friend was.
"Apparently, he ran the whole way down to the road junction trying to find his friend. We could hear him crying. He couldn't work out where is friend was, he was just metres from him."
A 50m stretch of wire fence lining the road and several street signs lay flattened at the scene.
A demolished fence at the scene of the crash. Photo/Warren Buckland
Dirt marks indicated one of the cars had left the road and crossed through another fence before coming to a rest in a grass paddock.
McCaughan said he understood the cars were street racing and had rounded the bend side by side before losing control.
"When I walked down here I couldn't believe these two young men were still alive," McCaughan said.
"It's a fast road and there's a junction where they [boy racers] do donuts. We hear them at night. It doesn't happen too often but when it does it's very noisy."
Several fence posts, including an upright power pole, had red marks on them, matching the red colour of car debris scattered on the side of the road.
McCaughan said he was surprised there weren't more accidents along the narrow stretch of "treacherous" road.
"The road from here to Napier is very dangerous. It's very windy and cars cross the centre line all the time. It's absolutely dangerous."
The posted speed limit on Puketitiri Rd is 100km/h but the Rotowhenua resident said that wasn't good enough.
