Police are investigating whether speed and alcohol were factors in a crash that killed four young friends believed to have been travelling to buy a cigarette lighter on the New South Wales north coast.
Jessica Camidge, 22, Richard Wells, 19, William Manton, 20, and Samantha Enright, 17, were killed when their Hyundai sedan slammed into a tree and almost split in two, after the driver tried to overtake a truck on the Pacific Highway about 1.20am on Wednesday.
Ms Camidge was driving the friends the 40 kilometres from Ewingsdale, near Byron Bay, to Ballina when the Hyundai left the road at Newrybar, just north of Ballina.
Police have confirmed Mr Wells, from West Ballina, was in the front passenger's seat, while Mr Manton, from Ballina, and Ms Enright, from Skennars Head, were in the rear passengers' seats.
The noise of the crash woke residents.
"We were woken by a loud bang around 2am, then surrounded by helicopters for the next few hours," Newrybar resident Peter Siefken said.
Inspector Nicole Bruce said the friends would have died almost instantly.
She said the driver attempted to pass a B-double truck over double lines and then swerved to miss another oncoming truck.
"They missed the truck but lost control and heavily impacted with a tree almost splitting the car in half," she said.
"It was fairly horrific."
Inspector Bruce said the Ballina Forensic Crash Unit was also investigating whether speed and alcohol were factors.
All families have been notified about the deaths, she said.
The fatal smash occurred along an 80km/h section of road at Newrybar, which is undergoing a long-awaited upgrade.
The Tintenbar to Ewingsdale upgrade, which will replace the deadly single-lane stretch of highway with dual carriageway, is expected to open in six months, Ballina Shire mayor David Wright said.
"This is a tragic loss of life and shows how imperative this highway upgrade is," Mr Wright said.
However, Mr Siefken said the roadworks had created a hazard for motorists.
Both lanes of the highway are now open.
Wednesday's crash is hauntingly similar to a crash in nearby Broken Head in 2006 that claimed the lives of four teenage friends and shocked the community.
Four years later, three friends in their 20s were killed on the Pacific Highway at Ewingsdale when their car collided with a B-double truck.
More recently, a 41-year-old man and a 72-year-old woman were killed in a crash at Woodburn, south of Ballina, on the Pacific Highway.
