Two teenagers were killed and seven injured when a van on a State Highway 50 bridge on the outskirts of Napier, crossed the centreline and ploughed into the oncoming car about 2am on Saturday.
Max Harman, 19, and Robert Waikari, 17, both of Hastings, died after being thrown from the van into the Tutaekuri River 15m below.
The five other teenagers in the van were also injured, with one, Ben Morrison, 19 in a critical condition in Wellington Hospital.
Police have said van driver Tamoko Christy, 16, had been drinking before the crash.
The car's driver, 18-year-old Simon Taunt, taken to hospital with his girlfriend, Melody Dane, after the crash, expressed sympathy for the van's occupants.
"I feel pretty stink for the people in the van really, it all happened so fast. It's exactly like those ads they have on TV," Mr Taunt told 3 News.
"I'd seen some headlights going from side to side and I wondered what was going down so I slowed down a bit and then realised the van wouldn't gain traction again and it started coming towards us.
"So I pulled the car to the left and that's when it hit us and rolled over us and I got knocked out by the steering wheel and came awake, realised what had happened and jumped out the window and ripped Melody's door open and grabbed her out."
Police said described the accident as a "lethal combination" of youth, alcohol and driving.
They said a decision on what charges the driver would face would not be made for some time.
One occupant of the van Ben Morrison, 19, was airlifted to Wellington Hospital where he remained in a critical condition today.
Four other teens -- two 17-year-old females and two males, aged 17 and 18, -- were in a stable conditions in general wards in Hastings Hospital.
They included the car driver 18-year-old Simon Taunt and his girlfriend, Melody Dane.
