He had four other teens in the car with him when he crashed. They have all been hospitalized. All were teenagers. Three were girls.
The dead youth was identified as Sina Naraghi-Zadeh, 18.
He was seen driving erratically by West Auckland police. They pursued him and he sped up, flying through a red light and evading the police car, which lost him.
Minutes later, residents of a residential neighborhood heard a loud crash as the car hit a tree and a lamppost, rolled over and came to halt in a driveway.
The dead boy’s father and uncle visited the crash scene the next day trying to make sense of what had happened.
The uncle told 3 News the youth was struggling to negotiate the shift from boyhood to manhood. “It’s trial and error. We all learn from our errors and experiences and move on,” the uncle said. “Unfortunately, some people end up like this. It’s sad to see, sad to see. He’s a lost soul.”
Sina reportedly died on impact.
Ross Ridler owns the house where the car came to rest. He rushed out when he heard the explosive noise, calling the New Zealand emergency number, 111, as he ran.
“I could see and hear a young girl in the back,” he told the New Zealand Herald. “She was saying, ‘Help, help. Get me out of here.’ I was trying to comfort her as best I could, telling her help was on the way.”
Local firefighters arrived in minutes and had to rip down parts of Ridler’s fence in order to get to the passengers trapped in the car.