Police Ten 7 segment on fatal Hawke's Bay crash hoped to identify mystery driver

The silver Ford Fairmont involved in the fatal accident on SH2. Photo / Duncan Brown

Police hope a segment on a mystery fatal Hawke's Bay crash airing on Police Ten 7 tonight will spur viewers to help identify the driver, who fled the scene.

The March 10, 2016, crah killed Hawke's Bay man Hemi Rapaea, 62.

Rapaea had been hitchhiking north of Dannevirke and given a ride by the driver of a silver Ford Fairmont.

The car veered off the road into bushes about 3.15am, just north of Te Aute College on SH2, flipped on its roof and then landed back on the road.

The driver fled on foot.

Shortly after the crash, police told the Herald Rapaea was "of no fixed abode",

Police used a drone to find anyone from the car in the nearby toetoe and maize bushes to make sure the driver had not crawled into bushes and died.

Sergeant Cory Ubels, officer in charge of the Serious Crash Unit in Hawke's Bay, hoped viewers of the Police Ten 7 segment will be able to offer information that would help identify the driver.

"This has been a long and complex investigation for which Mr Rapaea's grieving whanau need answers," he said.

"I'm hoping that with the passage of time, people who have information about the crash and the driver's identity, will be prompted to come forward and tell us what they know."

Ubels said evidence suggested two vehicles were travelling in convoy.

The segment will screen at 7.30pm on TV2.