KEY POINTS:
A young father killed when his teenage fiancee drifted off the country's most notorious stretch of highway may have pulled the car's handbrake at the last second - twisting the car so his passenger side hit a concrete pole.
Sloane Barry and his partner Jessica Ware were on
their way from Tauranga to Auckland to visit family, when her car drove off State Highway 2 near Mangatawhiri.
The 22-year-old's death is at least the 40th fatality in the past five years on the stretch of road dubbed the "Unforgiving Highway".
Charges could also be laid against 19-year-old Ware, who bought the high-powered Nissan Skyline only two days before the Friday afternoon accident.
The former Tauranga Girls' College student walked away uninjured and her parents, who were travelling behind the car, discovered the crash scene shortly after, said Pukekohe police sergeant Jeff Waldron.
The impact of the crash ripped open the car on the passenger side, resulting in multiple injuries to Barry, father of 4-year-old son, Antony.
An ex-Tauranga Boys' College pupil, Barry was a competitive kickboxer who had just finished a job as a security guard.
Last night, tearful Tim Saywell, 22, a stonemason of Tauranga, and his partner Billie Tetau, 23, were paying their respects at the accident scene.
"It always happens to the wrong person," said Saywell. "This guy was spot on. He shouldn't have died."
Saywell and Tetau said Barry had been incredibly strong support during the difficult first six months of their son Jayden's life. Jayden, now 22 months, was born 3 1/2 months premature and spent much of his first year in Starship hospital. "Sloane would hitchhike up from Tauranga all the time to see our sick boy. He was always there for us," said Saywell.
"He was the good-hearted one," said Tetau.
Saywell had been driving from Auckland to Tauranga on Friday night, shortly after the accident traffic. Then, he sat in the long queues and followed directions for the circuitous detour with frustration.
Yesterday morning, the couple were called with the news and Saywell was devastated to realise the queue the night before marked the end of his friend's life.
Saywell said the friends had seen each other just a few days ago and Barry was enjoying life with Ware. The couple had recently moved into a house together and were excited about the future.
Constable Steve Shaskey, of the Counties Manukau SCU, said witnesses behind the Skyline estimated that it was travelling at between 90 and 100km/h before the crash, which happened on a straight stretch of road.
No other vehicles were involved, and alcohol was not a factor.
Witnesses told Shaskey the car had been drifting slightly in the lane before leaving the road but investigators were not sure why.
"It's unusual. She just drifted off to the left and braked at the very last second. At that point she was looking at the power-pole thinking 'Oh crap'."
After leaving the road, Shaskey said, the car had swerved back to the right, possibly because Barry had pulled the handbrake on.
The handbrake was up when police arrived and Ware told officers she had not touched it.
Barry's death was at least the 40th fatality on the road in the past five years, said Dr Paul Hutchison, MP for Port Waikato. Two Transit projects worth up to $150 million to reroute State Highway 2 to bypass Mangatawhiri and Maramarua villages are in the pipeline, the first to be completed in the next 18 months
But Hutchison wants a four-lane highway to handle the 30,000 vehicles which travel on the road daily in peak holiday season.
" ... That is a Third World road." Hutchison said.
