During Monday's sentencing, the facts put before the court made for grisly reading - Prince was on his restricted licence but had been drinking and had several friends in the vehicle with him, along with Ms Wheeler.
Those same friends asked Prince to slow down when his speeds hit 140km/h, but he ignored them.
When the fatal crash happened, rather than being buckled in, Ms Wheeler was crouched in the vehicle's boot.
Even the events after the crash itself fit the mould of your typical teenage crash - Prince has expressed remorse, saying he wishes it was he who had died, and the family of Ms Wheeler allowed Prince to attend her tangi.
Nevertheless, this needs to stop.
There's been no shortage of efforts in recent years to educate teenagers around the dangers of alcohol and driving.
And yet, the message is clearly still not getting through.
A blood alcohol sample taken from Prince after the crash returned a reading too low to form any firm conclusions as to the teen's level of sobriety when he lost control of his vehicle.
But it's telling that Prince admitted he would not have overloaded his vehicle with people had he been entirely sober - an unsurprising admission that his thought processes were affected by the booze.
Perhaps, then, this is enough for the issue of alcohol levels for youth drivers to be looked at again.
This would be nothing new - but possibly acknowledgment is now needed that, when it comes to dealing with youth drivers and alcohol, rather than focusing on a defined rate at which they are considered able to safely control a car, perhaps greater consideration needs to be given to the impact alcohol consumption has on decision-making.
Sometimes, those decisions prove fatal.
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