Crash that killed five teens the South Island's deadliest in two decades
Monday, 9 August 2021
When a Nissan Bluebird crashed into a power pole with such force the car split in two, it became the deadliest crash in the South Island in more than two decades.
Saturday's crash on a rural South Canterbury road claimed the lives of five teenage boys – Javarney Wayne Drummond, 15, Andrew George Goodger, 15, Niko William Hill, 15, Joseff Alan James McCarthy, 16, and Jack Graeme Wallace, 16.
The 19-year-old driver was the only survivor.
The overloaded car – one of the bodies was found in the boot of the vehicle – crashed at the intersection of Seadown and Meadows roads in Washdyke. An investigation into the cause of the crash is under way, but police have already said they believe speed and alcohol may have been involved.
**READ MORE:
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* Eight dead after 4 crashes in 24 hours
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The last crash of this magnitude in the south occurred in June 2000 when six members of one family died when their van collided with a meat truck on State Highway 1 at Wairuna in South Otago.
It is certainly not a regular occurrence to see this many fatalities in a single crash. Nationally, there have been 13 fatal crashes where five or more people had died since 2000.
On April 28, 2019, a single crash near Taupō claimed the lives of eight people.
Tokoroa parents Margaret Luke, 35, and David Poutawa, 42, died alongside five of their children, aged between 7 and 13, when their car collided with a SUV at Atiamuri. Scouts NZ manager Jenny Rodgers, who was the sole occupant of the SUV, also died in the crash.
Earlier that month, on April 1, five members of the same family were killed in another crash also near Atiamuri, when their Ford Falcon with six occupants crashed into a tree.
In June 2018, seven people were killed when two cars collided head on State Highway 3 near Waverley in Taranaki. Four elderly people in one car, as well as a man and a newborn baby in the other car were killed instantly. A woman and an eight-year-old girl were rushed to hospital, but the girl died the following day.
In August 2016, five people were killed when a car pulled into the path of an oncoming logging truck on State Highway 2 near Katikati northwest of Tauranga.
In May 2005, nine people were killed when a minibus full of tourists crashed into a timber truck near Morrinsville in the Waikato. The deceased included the minibus driver from Auckland, his Thai girlfriend, a family of four from India, an American couple, and a French national.
Two hundred people have died on New Zealand’s road this year, of which 31 were killed on Canterbury roads.
The data shows a significant divide by gender: 153 of the fatalities were men and 47 were women.
Fourteen of the deaths nationally were 15 or younger, while 11 deaths were teenagers between 16 and 1.
According data available from the Ministry of Transport, young drivers (15-24 years old) were primarily responsible for 63 fatal crashes, 523 serious injury crashes, and 2565 minor injury crashes in 2019.
Most fatal crashes this year occurred on open roads, both state highways (76) and local roads (63), with the rest recorded as urban road crashes.