In a couple of seconds, a speeding, out-of-control car left the road and ended up submerged in the Whanganui River.
A witness to the fatal accident off Wanganui's Anzac Parade just after 1.30pm yesterday was walking along the riverbank on Somme Parade when he saw the Subaru car travelling at great
speed.
He told the Chronicle: "I have to watch this, because I knew something could happen."
The man said he watched as the car sped up behind another vehicle and went to pass. But a car had been coming from the north along Anzac Parade toward the speeding vehicle. "I thought it was going to be a head-on, but the car tried to cut back in." It had gone out of control.
He pointed to tyre marks on the road where the car had skidded across Anzac Parade at the Kiwi St corner, gouged tarseal on its way toward the gutter, hit the top of the kerb and was propelled backwards diagonally down the riverbank, where it sank into the river "in a couple of seconds".
"I saw three guys pop up from the car ... one went back down ... he was diving down to the car."
The witness said the other two had climbed up the bank.
Coastguard Wanganui patrolled the banks of the river between the Aramoho Rail Bridge and north of the crash scene, and was still at the scene at 6pm as members of the police dive squad inspected the submerged car.
Family and friends of the car's occupants lined the riverbank and some went down to the water's edge.
The Rev Graeme Puru also attended the crash scene late in the afternoon.
