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Police Say Crash Death Is Unexplained But Not Likely To Be Suspicious

Friday 25 October 2013, 4:01PM

By New Zealand Police

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WANAKA

Police say that while the death of 22-year-old Rutger Hale in a motor vehicle
crash on State Highway 6 yesterday morning is unexplained they don't believe
it is suspicious.

"We do not have any evidence that suggests that there is anything sinister or
suspicious about this crash but we need to work to piece together the logical
parts of the puzzle to establish how it occurred," says Detective Sergeant
Brian Cameron.

"As part of any crash investigation we must work through the objective facts
and gather the information that's needed to build a picture of what's
happened," he says.

"While we don't believe there is anything suspicious about the way this crash
occurred we're still very keen to speak with the driver of the ute that we
believe was in the area at the time the crash happened, so we can establish
whether it is involved in any way or not," Detective Sergeant Cameron says.

Police are working with ESR to determine what the object was that smashed
through the windscreen of Mr Hale's Subaru station wagon as he drove along
State Highway 6 near Wanaka early yesterday morning.

Police received a number of pieces of information that they are following up
on after conducting an area canvas amongst motorists travelling this morning
along State Highway 6 in the vicinity of where the crash occurred. Police
have also visited local addresses in the area to see if anyone has
information that might assist.

"We're still keen for anyone to contact us if they have any information that
might assist in relation to our investigation of this crash."

Police say results from a post-mortem and any further information is not
likely to be available over the next few days.