{"id":656843,"date":"2026-11-10T17:56:18","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T17:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/656843\/"},"modified":"2026-11-10T17:56:18","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T17:56:18","slug":"takanini-tragedy-car-seen-speeding-before-crash-that-killed-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/656843\/","title":{"rendered":"Takanini tragedy: Car seen speeding before crash that killed three"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI mean, really fast, just missing the car that was in front of me in the next lane. I reckon if he didn\u2019t swerve, that car would have hit them straight on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had my grandson in the car too… I said to him \u2018did you see that f***ing car nearly hit that other car?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She estimated the car was travelling \u201cway over\u201d 100km\/h in the 50km\/h zone and believed it was the same vehicle involved in the fatal crash at BurgerFuel a few minutes later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI use that road quite a bit when I\u2019m delivering food in the weekends and that\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve come across a car at that speed.\u201d<\/p>\n

She wondered what may have happened if she pulled out on to the road a few moments later: \u201cI could have got hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe car in Sunday’s accident smashed through a metal gate and into a BurgerFuel building. Photo \/ Hayden Woodward<\/p>\n

Police said all three occupants of the car<\/a> were pronounced dead at the scene.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Supreme Sikh Society and Central Sikh Association president Daljit Singh shared the \u201cvery sad news\u201d that the victims were three young people from Punjabi Indian families<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll three bodies will be sent to India as per the wishes of the family and we are in contact with the family members,\u201d he said in a Facebook post, translated into English.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn behalf of the community, our condolences are with family, friends at this sad time and the community will be asked for help as police investigations are completed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Singh said he could not yet name the victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cInformation about those who died in this accident can be shared after police investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

An investigation into the circumstances of the crash and formal identification processes are ongoing.<\/p>\n

Police had not received any \u201cdriving complaints\u201d before the crash. The vehicle was not stolen and police \u201cweren\u2019t responding to the vehicle\u201d when it crashed.<\/p>\n

Photos showed the car as a mangled wreck, while smashed glass, a bent metal gate and debris from the vehicle were strewn across the surrounding area the following morning. <\/p>\n

A BurgerFuel spokesperson said the restaurant was closed at the time and staff working were not injured.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe crash left extensive damage to the BurgerFuel store front. Photo \/ Joel Kulasingham<\/p>\n

A worker from the neighbouring shops said it wasn\u2019t the first time a major crash had happened in the area, with a car losing control at the same roundabout and smashing into a tree in the last year or so. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a dangerous area,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople just speed through here. They\u2019ll speed through the carpark as well. It\u2019s a nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another worker echoed similar sentiments about the area after hearing about the \u201csad\u201d crash. <\/p>\n

\u201cQuite a lot of street racers come by and they\u2019re always driving really fast down here. It\u2019s so bad.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI mean, really fast, just missing the car that was in front of me in the next lane.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[145404,74,51,9218,3944,3549,6659,31143,17898,19552,3375,111,43,139,69,1523,1314,7812,6102,1240,25260,20489,109187,186366,1361,1529,12628,14344,14047,243860,25152],"class_list":["post-656843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-100kmh","tag-after","tag-auckland","tag-before","tag-car","tag-crash","tag-deadly","tag-delivery","tag-didnt","tag-driver","tag-killed","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-road","tag-seen","tag-side","tag-south","tag-speeding","tag-speeds","tag-takanini","tag-thankful","tag-that","tag-three","tag-tragedy","tag-travelling","tag-way","tag-witnessing","tag-wrong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656843","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=656843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}