The victim of Friday's collision was 19-year-old Jaydus Hungahunga, of Flaxmere. Photo / NZME
The victim of Friday's collision was 19-year-old Jaydus Hungahunga, of Flaxmere. Photo / NZME
A young man who died after a collision between a truck and a car in Whakatū has been remembered as a talented and community-minded Māori leader.
He was Jaydus Hungahunga, 19, of Flaxmere.
Graeme Barrett, deputy headmaster at Hastings Boys' High School, said Jaydus led the school kapahaka group and was deeply embedded in tikanga Māori at the school.
"He always was the leader, and I think that will be the thing that will be remembered by the school," Barrett said.
He said Jaydus had continued to return to the school to help out the school's kapa haka group after graduating, and had been with the group the day before the crash.
Jaydus won the Year 11 Maori Performing Arts Award in 2018, the Māori language award in 2019 and the Māori language trophy in 2020.
Jaydus was also one of eight students in 2018 praised by a St John's Hawke's Bay EMT for their "honorable" and "lifesaving" actions when assisting an elderly woman in Frimley Park after a fall.
Emergency services were called to the crash on Anderson Rd, near Station Rd, about 7.30am.
