Boy racers avoid jail after admitting manslaughter

File photo / NZ Herald

Two teenagers who pleaded guilty to manslaughter following the death of their friend in an illegal west Auckland street race will not go to jail.

In the High Court at Auckland this morning, Calum Elliot, 18, and Dylan Chad, 17, were each sentenced to nine months' home detention.

Seventeen-year-old Tyler Hoyle died after he was hit by a car in Hobsonville on August 1 last year.

A Scott Rd resident said at the time she was driving home on the rural road that day when she came across two cars pulled to the side and saw a boy lying on the ground.

"He was killed, he was killed instantly,'' she said.

"They had just called for an ambulance, and then the ambulance and things arrived, but there was nothing anybody could do for him.''

Charges of reckless driving causing death were earlier dropped.