17-year-old girl dies in horror crash after car bursts into flames
A New Zealand teenager has passed away in a horror crash that left her trapped inside the vehicle before it burst into flames.
Tayla Alexander, 17, was in a Suburu hatchback before it rolled down a bank and caught on fire on Summit Road in Christchurch. The accident happened at 11 pm on a Wednesday night.
She was driving with three other teenagers, who were all injured and taken to hospital to be treated.
At least six people tried to rescue those trapped inside the car before it burst into flames.
Friends and family of the teenager have remembered Tayla as a “beautiful” girl that was taken far too soon.
“She put her heart on her sleeve,” a friend who wished to remain anonymous told Stuff.
“She was a beautiful girl and she's going to be terribly missed.”
"I think that's the hard thing about being from a small town, everyone knows everyone, so from this event so many people are going to [be] affected."
Kevin Clark, who was driving along the road at the time of the accident, said that the road has a “horrible corner”.
"It was right on that bend; it's a horrible corner as it is. I've always taken it stupidly slow because I've always thought people [will] go off it if they go too quick around it."
Clark also stopped to help rescue those who were trapped in the car.
"All of the people there were trying to put out the fire and doing all they could to help the people out."
In New Zealand, 303 people have died on the roads this year so far alone.
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