The scene of the fatal crash on Saturday night. Photo: Stuff / Marty Sharpe
Just shy of midnight on Saturday an innocuous inner-city house-lined street in Napier was the scene of "absolute chaos" in which one young person was killed, others critically injured, and a large crowd gathered around the crumpled wreck of a Honda CRV.
On Monday morning cars are parked in their usual orderly fashion on either site of the street, groups of students make their way up the street to school as office workers pass them on the way to work.
The only signs of this being the site in which families' lives were changed forever are lines of yellow spray paint marking the final path of the car before it came to rest.
Police have said nine people were in the car when it crashed on Shakespeare Rd at 11.50pm on Saturday.
Yellow lines mark the path of the car before it crashed. Photo: Stuff / Marty Sharpe
One, a woman in her 20s, died at the scene.
Two others were critically injured and remain in intensive care. Five others were injured. One was uninjured.
They had all been in the car, which was seen speeding through inner city streets just seconds earlier.
A witness, who did not wish to be named, said he had just finished working in the city and was driving along Hastings St when he saw the speeding car.
"As I approached Tennyson St the car came super fast around the corner where Ajuna [cafe] is. I had a green light, they had a red light, which they just flew through. It turned into Hastings St towards Shakespeare Rd and had to do a hard right turn to miss a white car, then a hard left turn to get back in the lane," he said.
"It was wobbling all over the place, then accelerated real fast up Shakespeare Rd," he said.
After the near miss, he lost sight of the car at that point.
As he drove slowly up Shakespeare Rd he saw a group of people on the road.
"I could see the car on its side with a whole bunch of people all over the road. It looked like they were fighting. It didn't look good. Then there were others running and jumping on to the car. It looked like they were trying to get people out," he said.
"It was absolute chaos. I thought about going up to see if I could help, but there looked like a lot of fighting going on and I didn't feel like being in the middle of that. It looked real aggro. It was all very weird," he said.
He estimated there were 40-50 people on the road. "There was a heap of people out on the road in their dressing gowns," he said.
He rang 111, but saw the first police car arrive seconds later. Four other police cars arrived over the next few minutes.
The police serious crash unit was investigating.
Police appealed for any witnesses of a dark blue Honda CRV "driving erratically in the Napier CBD" just before the crash or for anyone who has dashcam or other footage of the vehicle to get in touch.
Anyone with information should contact police via the 105 phone service or [www.police.govt.nz/use-105 online] using 'Update My Report', referencing file number 221030/4150.
Information can also be provided anonymously via Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.
- This story first appeared on Stuff's website.