Girl, 16, dies as car hits ditch

Speed and a wet road may have contributed to the death of a 16-year-old Whangarei girl in a car crash west of the city.
The girl, who has yet to be named, was one of four teenagers in a Subaru that left the road and crashed on State Highway 14, near Maungatapere, 12km southwest of Whangarei, about 11.30pm on Saturday.
The death is the second on Northland's roads so far this year and comes after a rise in road deaths in the region last year.
Exact details of the crash are still being put together but Whangarei police believe the Subaru Impreza WRX was heading west when it left the road and crashed into a ditch.
The 16-year-old girl, who was a rear-seat passenger in the car, died at the scene of the accident, about 150 metres west of Snooks Rd.
The other three teens in the car all received minor injuries and were treated at the scene before being taken to Whangarei Hospital.
Police could not say at this stage if the dead girl was wearing a seatbelt when the car crashed off the road.
Officers from the police serious crash unit are investigating the circumstances surrounding the accident.
SH14 had to be closed for about two hours after the crash while the officers did their investigation work and traffic was diverted around the scene through Snooks Rd and Tatton Rd.
The road was eventually reopened about 2.30am yesterday.
Police said alcohol did not appear to have been a factor in the accident but speed and the wet road conditions may have played a part.
No other vehicles were involved.
Moana Clifford (Cliff) Wharerau, 53, of Kaikohe, became Northland's first road fatality of 2007 when his truck crashed off the road north of Kawakawa on January 6. Mr Wharerau's wife and two-year-old grandson, who were in the truck at the time, were not hurt in the crash.
While in 2006 the national road toll dropped to its lowest level since 1960, Northland's toll climbed from 23 in 2005 to 28 last year.
Northland Highway Patrol Senior Sergeant Alastair Ward said the rise in the region's road deaths was disappointing.
"It's not wearing seatbelts, tiredness and alcohol that are the killers out there," he said.
If everyone had been wearing seatbelts, up to seven fewer people would have died last year - and that would have made Northland's 2006 toll a near-record low. Many deaths occurred in single-car accidents where the vehicle rolled and people were thrown through the windscreen.
Of the 28 fatalities in Northland last year, at least four were alcohol-related.