{"id":236644,"date":"2026-01-16T17:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T17:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/236644\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T17:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T17:34:08","slug":"rotorua-sh36-fatal-crash-21-year-old-driver-named-by-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/236644\/","title":{"rendered":"Rotorua SH36 fatal crash: 21-year-old driver named by police"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bay of Plenty road policing manager Inspector Phil Gillbanks said police had seen the car near T\u012brau<\/a> and recognised it as a vehicle of interest after an aggravated robbery in Tauranga on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe manner of driving has been erratic and posed a significant risk to other road users.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police spiked the vehicle on Oturoa Rd, near SH36, and again on Hamurana Rd about 5.30pm.<\/p>\n

Gillbanks said police found the Lexus had crashed into a truck and caught fire<\/a> on SH36.<\/p>\n

He said the driver died and the two young passengers were trapped and seriously hurt.<\/p>\n

\u201cMembers of the public and officers put themselves at significant risk to put the flames out and protect the car\u2019s occupants from the fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople ran to the scene with extinguishers, and about 18 were used to put the fire out.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said their courageous actions saved the trapped passengers\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n

Gillbanks said the truck driver sustained minor injuries and was treated at the scene by ambulance staff.<\/p>\n

Several officers were also treated for minor burns and smoke inhalation.<\/p>\n

The police statement today asked for anyone with CCTV footage or dashcam video of a silver Lexus sedan with the registration DZS7 between 4pm and 5.30pm Tuesday to come forward.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information was asked to make a report online at 105.police.govt.nz or by calling 105 and using the reference number 260113\/9655.<\/p>\n

Information can also be provided anonymously via Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111.<\/p>\n

Annabel Reid<\/a> is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, based in Rotorua. Originally from Hawke\u2019s Bay, she has a Bachelor of Communications from the University of Canterbury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bay of Plenty road policing manager Inspector Phil Gillbanks said police had seen the car near T\u012brau and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[62507,3595,3549,6179,19552,11784,64600,6288,305,10136,3180,111,43,139,69,675,1327,137633,14578,4741],"class_list":["post-236644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-21yearold","tag-by","tag-crash","tag-died","tag-driver","tag-fatal","tag-fiery","tag-hamilton","tag-have","tag-named","tag-near","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-police","tag-rotorua","tag-sh36","tag-tuesday","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}