Three killed on horror highway

Three people were last night killed in a two-vehicle crash on one of New Zealand's most notorious stretches of highway.

The vehicles - a ute and a car - collided in wet weather on State Highway 2 near Maramarua School at 8.15pm.

The two woman and a man, who were trapped in their car, died at the scene. The injured driver of the ute was airlifted to Middlemore Hospital.

Inspector Leo Tooman this morning said it appeared that the Ford Probe car had failed to negotiate a "gentle" left-hand bend and spun out of control.

"The 17-year-old female driver of the car, and 18-year-old male and female passengers suffered critical injuries in the crash and died at the scene while the driver of the utility suffered serious but non-life threatening injuries," Mr Tooman said.

He said police were investigating whether alcohol had played any part in the crash.

"The Waikato Serious Crash Unit is investigating the crash and as well as looking into if the driver had been drinking has identified the standard of the tyres of the car are of concern.

"Toxicology reports will take several days to complete and it will be some time before we can confirm if our concerns are justified."

A volunteer fireman who attended the crash said it appeared the car had slid sideways in the wrong lane, and was "t-boned" by the south-travelling ute.

"It seemed like they'd slid a long way, it's wet and slippery weather. Unfortunately by the time we got there, there was nothing we could do for the girls.

"I couldn't see skidmarks, but it looked like they'd tried to correct before the ute just went straight into the side of them."

He said it was the first serious crash on the section of road in months.

"Our callout rate has dropped down a lot since the bypass came in. But this was just bad luck, and bad driving, and it just keeps on happening here."

The 34km stretch of State Highway 2 between Pokeno and the turnoff to Thames has claimed 31 lives and seriously injured more than 56 people since 2003.

It has been dubbed the "unforgiving highway".

The Transport Agency constructed a bypass on the highway in 2008 at a cost of $46 million.

The bypass, north of where last night's crash occurred, straightened the Mangatawhiri section of the highway, where nine of the 28 deaths occurred.

Mr Tooman said the number of serious and fatal crashes on that part of SH2 had greatly reduced since the redevelopment of identified black spots.

"Unfortunately where last night's tragedy occurred was outside those areas, obviously this location will now be the subject of some scrutiny to see what if any environmental and engineering enhancements can be made," he said.

State Highway 2 was closed for several hours while emergency services dealt with the incident.

Traffic had to travel on side roads while police officers inspected the site.

The Fire Service was required to recover the bodies.

The identities of the women involved in the crash were not known last night.

- With NZHERALD STAFF