Dunedin crash victim named

The 18-year-old died in the fatal crash on the corner of Stafford and Hope St. Photo / Otago Daily Times

The 18-year-old girl who died in a crash in central Dunedin yesterday morning was Nakita May Strange.

Police have confirmed she was a passenger in a vehicle that had driven away from a North Dunedin petrol station without paying shortly before the crash occurred.

The car fled a central city service station after a quantity of petrol was taken without being paid for, shortly before failing to give way at the intersection of Hope and Stafford streets and being T-boned by an oncoming Ford Courier ute, police say.

"It was a central city service station that the petrol drive-off was completed from," officer-in-charge Sergeant Sheldon Kindley told the Otago Daily Times this morning.

"Following from that the car was involved in the crash."

Nakita, one of six young people in a Ford Laser, suffered fatal injuries from the crash.

Two other occupants of the car remain in hospital, one with minor upper body injuries and the other with serious facial injuries that require further medical treatment.

Mr Kindley said the investigation into the crash was in its "very early" stages and it was not clear what charges would be laid or when.

He could also not comment on whether police believed speed or alcohol were factors.

Nakita has been remembered by friends on Facebook as "a beautiful person".

"Earth lost a beautiful person but heaven gained an amazing angel. Rest easy ... gone but never forgotten," one tribute on Facebook said.

"Rest in peace beautiful forever 18," one mourner wrote.

"I love you ... I hate the fact that you're gone."

One person wrote: "Why did this cruel world have to take you so soon?"

Many spoke of the disbelief at the news of her death.

"Can someone please tell me this news about Nakita isn't really true. Why?"

"Rest in peace baby girl. You were taken away from us so soon."

Others paid tribute to Nakita as a "sweetheart" whose "smile lit up the room".

Police said the Laser Nakita was in failed to give way at the Hope Street intersection about 2.15am yesterday.

Hope Street resident Leah Coster said she saw the driver of the other vehicle rush to give Nakita CPR.

"They [the Laser's occupants] were in bad shape. The lady in the back-seat was unconscious, so our priority was getting her out.

"The driver of [the other car] did CPR," she said.

"He was in shock."

Another witness, who didn't want to be named, said she saw the driver of the over-loaded car that failed to give way flee the scene.

"He [the driver] was pacing around the car," she said.

"But everyone was in shock and then they just noticed he had gone."

He was later found by police, who haven't laid any charges in relation to the crash and wouldn't be drawn on details of the investigation yesterday.

The crash was the fifth fatal crash in six days on New Zealand roads.

A logging truck and ute collided near Rotorua on State Highway 30 yesterday about 1.30pm, killing Kinleith man Blair Amundsen, 35.

Terry Henry Munday, 63, died in a car crash near Ashburton about 11pm on Friday and motorcyclist Shannon David Stewart died on Sunday in Christchurch when a van did a u-turn in front of him.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, 14-year-old Rangimaria White died in an alleged hit-and-run as she attempted to cross a residential Opotiki road.

- With additional reporting from Sophie Ryan of NZME News Service