The driver of a ute involved in a horrifying crash that left three people dead near Thames last night was on bail for drug offences, according to a report.
The head-on crash near State Highway 25's Kopu Bridge left a married couple in their 60s - Ian James Fielder and Jocelyn Fielder - dead, while the other fatality was the 20-year-old driver of the second vehicle.
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Coromandel triple-fatal crash: Car driven by the 20-year-old crossed centre line, police say
Three dead after two-vehicle crash at Kopu Bridge, Coromandel
A source told Stuff the man, Haydn David Clark from Drury, had left his bail address and in was breach of his 24 hour curfew at the time.
He was also on manufacture and supply of methamphetamine charges.
The man's father, 54, was cut from the wreckage and is critically ill in Auckland's Middlemore Hospital.
Waikato road police manager Inspector Marcus Lynam said one of the vehicles involved had been reported stolen before the crash.
"It was a purchase of a vehicle that went wrong and it was reported stolen, but it is more of a civil matter," Stuff reported.
Police said in an earlier statement: "Initial indications suggest the car driven by the 20-year-old crossed the centre line and collided with the other car".
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