Booze, street-racing links to crash
‘‘We both got up, [went] down to see if there was anything we could do, phoned 111. By the time we got there, there was screaming.’’ Witness to crash
Families were left mourning four people – two of whom had young children – after a tragic high-speed smash outside Hamilton.
Lance Robinson, 28, Hannah Lei Strickett-craze, 24, Paul De Silva, 20, all from the Waipa area, and 19-year-old Jason Mccormick Ross, of Taranaki, were killed after the car they were travelling in split in two near Hamilton Airport about 10pm on Friday.
The four were in a white Nissan Skyline heading north when it crossed the centre line and slid into an oncoming van.
Both speed and alcohol were factors in the crash.
Police are also investigating whether the Skyline was racing with another vehicle moments before the crash.
Multiple witnesses heard vehicles speeding up the road, doing more than 150kmh, and saw a third white vehicle speed away from the scene.
The impact was so severe it split the car, leaving the four dead at the scene.
The van driver’s legs were crushed and he had to be cut free by firefighters. A Waikato Hospital spokesperson said on Sunday he was in a stable condition.
Both Strickett-craze and De Silva were parents of young children. Strickett-craze, 24, grew up in Te Awamutu and recently moved back to the Waikato from Invercargill where she trained as a beauty therapist.
She recently opened her own beauty parlour and was taking her 4-year-old son, Levi, on school visits.
Paul De Silva was the father of a young child. Robinson, believed to be the owner of the Skyline, is from Te Awamutu.
Mccormick Ross recently moved from the Taranaki area to the Waikato.
Police also confirmed they were looking at a link between Friday night’s horror crash and an incident at a Te Awamutu petrol station, where the driver of a Nissan Skyline was allegedly involved in an altercation with a motorist over speeding.
Steve Hartland, who lives near the crash site, said a driver of a ute, who was one of the first on the scene of the crash, confronted the driver about his speeding shortly before the crash occurred.
‘‘He [the driver] tried to pick a fight with him and the girl in the car was mouthing off to him,’’ Hartland said.
‘‘They were overtaking him coming down the Ohaupo hill.
‘‘The Skyline was overtaking him and the other car was overtaking.’’
Waikato roading police manager Inspector Freda Grace said illegal street racing was a problem in the region and they were working closely with the community to find the occupants of the third car.
Police were appealing to anyone who saw a white Nissan Skyline, and a small light coloured vehicle it was with, driving between Ohaupo and Te Awamutu between 9.30pm and 10pm on Friday.
Senior Sergeant Pete Simpson said yesterday that police were following up some strong leads on the vehicle thanks to information from the public.
A witness to the crash, who only wanted to be known as Gina, described the incident as being like the movie Fast and Furious.
The two cars came ‘‘flying’’ down the road, she said.
She and several other witnesses saw a third vehicle flee the scene.
Police had not identified the make of that vehicle, only that it was a light-coloured small car, Grace said.
‘‘We heard the cars racing, going really fast, well over 150[kmh],’’ Gina said on Saturday. ‘‘We both got up, [went] down to see if there was anything we could do, phoned 111. By the time we got there, there was screaming.’’
Gina comforted the van driver, whose legs were trapped.
Wearing no shoes, her feet were cut from the smashed glass.
‘‘He said he couldn’t feel his legs. He was in a bit of shock, while [name withheld] checked out the car that had been split. It looked like scrap metal.’’
The van driver, in his 30s, told her the Skyline had crossed the centre line and slammed into the driver’s side of his van.
A young woman arrived at the scene shortly after and appeared to know the victims.
Witnesses said she was screaming ‘‘They’re all dead! They’re all dead!’’ and ‘‘How could they have done this?’’ into her phone.