15 Jul 2012

Police name three who died in crash

7:50 pm on 15 July 2012

Police in Gisborne have named those killed in Saturday night's triple fatality in the city.

They were Dylon Kingi, 28, Holly Gunn, 25, and Peter Bunyan, 27.

The fourth person in the car, another woman aged 25, is being treated for a range of moderate injuries at Gisborne Hospital.

Police say the vehicle had failed to stop when they tried to pull it over, and later struck a power pole.

They say they signalled for the driver of a Mitsubishi to stop, at about 9.45pm on Saturday, but the driver refused to pull over and fled at high speed.

Police say officers followed for just over 90 seconds before losing sight of the vehicle.

They were informed by a member of the public about two minutes later that it had crashed

An ambulance manager is amazed anyone was able to survive the crash.

St John Ambulance manager Shane Clapperton says the incident involved a car crashing at high speed through trees and fences before hitting a power pole.

He says the car was extensively damaged and it is a miracle that anyone was able to survive.

The crash is being investigated by police, and will also be referred to a coroner and the Independent Police Complaints Authority.