Manslaughter charges over Christmas crash
A 20-year-old Aucklander will today appear in the Tauranga District Court facing manslaughter charges over the deaths of two teenage sisters in a car crash.
Merepeka Morehu-Clark, 14, and Brooklyn Morehu-Clark, 13, both of Tauranga, died on Christmas day.
They were passengers in a car driven by the 20-year-old that collided with a red Mitsubishi ute after overtaking another car.
The sisters, who were on their way to visit their grandmother's grave when the accident happened, were not wearing seatbelts.
Three hundred people mourned their deaths at Tahuwhakatiki (Romai) Marae yesterday, on the same road where they died.
''I told them to buckle up,'' grieving father Wiremu Clark told One News.
''Our children are the best things you can ever have. And I've lost two.''
The 20-year-old man was interviewed by police after being discharged from hospital in Tauranga and will face two counts of manslaughter.
Meanwhile, a pensioner, believed to be on her way to pay her phone bill in Wellsford yesterday, died after being struck by a car around 9.15am.
The woman, thought to be in her 80s, was struck on State Highway 1 while crossing the road.
She was not near a pedestrian crossing at the time of the incident.
Wellsford Super Mart owner John Pattan said doctors and nurses from a local medical clinic rushed to help the woman.
"I could see she had a broken leg, but I did a first aid course and the first thing they taught us was to make the patient comfortable. It wasn't nice to see an elderly person lying face down on the tarmac. I was really upset, I could see blood trickling from her head."
Just before 3pm yesterday a 70-year-old woman was killed in a collision on the Desert Rd.
Rescue teams worked for half an hour to free the adult male driver of the other car, who was flown to Palmerston North Hospital with his three injured teenage passengers.
All four were in a stable condition last night. Two rescue helicopters were sent to the scene about 5km north of Waiouru and two police cars that were patrolling nearby arrived within minutes.
St John ambulance district commander Stephen Smith said it was a high-speed accident, making it difficult to assess where each car had travelled from.
"At high speeds you just can't tell which direction cars were going in or anything."
Palmerston North Rescue Helicopter pilot Marc Bridgman said there was "a significant amount of damage" to the cars.
The road was closed for about four hours.
Police said it was too early to say whether the driver would face charges.
Just four days into the 12-day holiday period, the accidents are expected to see the official road toll climb to eight – only four shy of last year's final tally.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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