A 14-year-old girl is dead and her three friends injured after the car she was driving rolled and landed on its roof in Wairoa late last night.
The teens had been travelling south along Ruataniwha Road in a 1995 Subaru Impreza when it failed to take a left-hand bend.
The car crashed
into a ditch, rolled and landed on its roof about 11.15pm, the driver dying at the scene.
Her three female friends aged, 14, 15 and 16, all received cuts and bruises and were treated at Wairoa Hospital.
One of the teens was flown to Hawke's Bay Hospital early this morning with serious arm injuries.
Lowe rescue helicopter pilot Brent Williams said he was called to the accident at 11.20pm.
The helicopter crew were told the driver had died as they were airborne to Wairoa. Mr Williams said they were then diverted to the nearby hospital where one of the injured passengers was waiting with a severe cut to the arm and a fracture.
Sergeant Aubrey Ormond, of Wairoa police, said a serious crash investigator was at the scene this morning. Police were still trying to contact the dead girl's family today, and had not yet spoken to the three passengers.
One of the road's residents said the corner on which the accident occurred often caught drivers out. The woman, who did not wish to be named, said there had been three accidents on the spot in the past 12 months.
"It's the only corner on the whole road. There are no white lines and the road gets quite narrow. If you don't know the road that corner can be a trap. If you're the slightest bit over the centre line you're in trouble," she said.
Wairoa College principal Brian Simpson said the school had not received official information on the accident, but the news had spread through the town.
Mr Simpson said a couple of the girls were pupils at the college.
The school had a traumatic incident response plan, and would provide places for pupils to go for time-out and have counsellors on stand-by.
Mr Simpson said the school would focus on helping and supporting grieving pupils.
