Waikato police say the three teenagers who were killed in a car accident in Maramarua, south of Auckland, had earlier been stopped while travelling at 130 kilometres an hour.
They also said the car's driver had been on a restricted licence.
"She (the driver) was issued with an infringement notice for speeding and carrying unauthorised passengers in relation to her graduated driver's licence," Waikato police spokesman Andrew McAlley said today.
"Under current legislation Police can only issue an infringement notice, not seize the vehicle, tragically the trio's trip to South Auckland came to an abrupt end in the Waikato on Tuesday night.
"We are making efforts to track down the officer who issued the notice, which was recovered in the wreckage of the car," he said.
The teenagers were killed on Tuesday night when their car collided with another vehicle at a notorious accident blackspot. They have been named as Mary Jane Jo Vanna Kingi-Te Purei, Tiata Te Arohanui Maxwell and Te Maungarongo Te Kuiri Kingi, all of Gisborne and all 18 years old.
State Highway Two was closed at Maramarua this morning while police surveyed the scene of the accident.
It appears the driver of the trio's westbound Ford Probe lost control on a slight bend and the car spun into the path of an eastbound Ford Courier, seriously injuring the male driver.
The teens had to be cut out of the car and the ute driver was airlifted to Auckland's Middlemore Hospital with serious injuries.
Police said it was too early to say if drugs or alcohol were involved, but said they had concerns about the state of the tires on the Ford Probe car.
The deaths had been reported to the coroner, who also attended the scene today.
Over the past five years eight people have died in five crashes on the Waikato stretch of SH2 around where Tuesday night's crash occurred.
"At this point all Police can do is warn of the dangers the combination of long trips and driver inexperience pose, drivers licences are graduated to allow young drivers to learn and gain experience instead of hitting the nation's highways cold," said Western Waikato Area Commander, Inspector Paul Carpenter.
"Regretfully it appears these young people never had the opportunity to gradually gain that experience and three families are left to pick up the pieces from this tragic event."
