Man pleads guilty to causing crash which killed Taranaki teenager Olivia Keightley-Trigg

Olivia Keightly-Trigg. Photo / Supplied

The man whose vehicle killed a Taranaki teenager with an infectious laugh in a head-on collision last year has pleaded guilty to causing the crash.

Olivia Renee Keightley-Trigg died on August 28 last year when another vehicle crossed the centre line and crashed into her.

Today, the driver of the other vehicle, Kevin Ronald Bishell, plead guilty to dangerous driving causing death and refusing a request for a blood sample.

He had initially pleaded not guilty to both charges, Stuff reported.

However, following today's pleas he would now be sentenced in the New Plymouth District Court in November.

Defence counsel Paul Keegan confirmed Bishell pleaded guilty to the charges.

Keightley-Trigg was driving home to Waitara on State Highway 3 after taking friends to the airport when she was struck by Bishell, driving a ute, around 6am.

The 18-year-old died at the scene.

The month before, 19-year-old Kyle William Love, also from Waitara, was also killed in a two-car crash near the location of Keightley-Trigg's death.

Eleven other people died on New Zealand roads in the same week as Keightley-Trigg, sparking a road safety plea from her sister.

Brianna Tipene told the Herald there was a need for "something to be sorted", especially around the conditions of New Zealand roads.

More than 600 people attended a farewell and celebration service for Keightley-Trigg in August last year.

A few days earlier, Tipene told Stuff it would be her sister's strong faith and infectious laugh she would remember most.

"That was the one thing that me and her did most together, was just laugh.

"She was always the person if anybody was ever sad she would be there straightaway. She would make anyone else feel like a million bucks again."