One critical after car hits tree in South Auckland

Teenager Alex Tonga was enjoying a few drinks with his mates in the early hours of Sunday morning when a car kept "zooming up and down" the street in South Auckland where he lived.

"The driver was probably doing 120 or 140ks, I don't know, but I was thinking he was either drunk or crazy, aye," said the 16-year-old.

This morning, residents on Ferguson St in Mangere were awaken to the sound of a loud bang after a car crashed into a tree on Ferguson Street in Mangere.

A 16-year-old is in critical condition and nine-year-old has suffered serious injuries.

"We came out to take a look and saw that it was the same VR4 that was zooming up and down at around 2am," Tonga said.

Three of them, including the driver, were trapped and had to be freed by emergency services using the jaws of life.

A crane was used shortly after noon to remove and lift the car from the tree.

Police said a car collided with a tree at around 9.15am and that the police serious crash unit was investigating.

Mohammed Shafik, 59, who lived a few doors away, said he was woken up by a "loud bang".

"I rushed out, and it was then that I knew the sound came from a car crash," he said.

Mr Shafik said the street was popular with boy racers and he believed it had been just a matter of time for a serious accident to happen.

His granddaughter, Shama Shahista, 15, said several less serious accidents had happened on the street in the past.

"Usually it's in the early hours of the morning when people are coming home from parties or something," she said.

Josh Patel, 46, who stays overnight at his girlfriend's house on the street every weekend said boy racers had been "terrorizing" residents.

"They drive their souped up cars at top speed endangering not just their own lives, but pedestrians too," he said.

"They're terrorizing us, and that's why some of us don't even want to step out of our homes at night."