Patrick Gower 30 Dec 2006

Asked about what possessed him to speed off from police, Lance Duff once explained that when cornered, he panicked.

The 16-year-old from West Auckland clearly had a thing for speed, so there was something sadly predictable about the way he and two friends died after blazing along the motorway at 190km/h in the early hours of Christmas Eve.

Lance had been in court several times this year for dangerous driving and failing to stop for police - including one chase that police say ended when he hit a power pole.

So he was unlikely to stick around when police stopped him at 10pm last Saturday. He'd been doing 93km/h in a 50km/h zone. Police say he had a learner licence, he should not have been out at that time unsupervised, and nor should he have had passengers.

When an officer said the Honda Prelude would be impounded and reached in to take the keys, Lance took off. The car belonged to his girlfriend's family.

The officers took the tickets around to his girlfriend's parents' house where he was living and asked them to bring him into Balmoral station in the morning.

Lance stayed out driving around with friends Walter Russell, 17, and Cheyenne Freeman, 19.

Police stopped him again about 4am after they were seen in Queen St, swilling from a wine bladder with one passenger hanging out the sunroof.

This time the officer had taken only his first name when Lance sped off to the Northwestern Motorway, heading for west Auckland.

Police say they dropped back, unable to see the dark-blue car after Lance turned off the headlights.

At the St Lukes off-ramp Lance lost control, sending the car somersaulting into a gully.

Lance's girlfriend is five months pregnant with their child.

His funeral will be held today.

Lance's grandmother Pat Duff told the Weekend Herald there was no question that he loved speed.

She had asked him why he would try to burn off the police and he told her: "I don't know why, but when I get into a corner I just panic."

Mrs Duff, who has helped raise more than 20 foster children, described it as "more than an accident". "It is a breakdown of the system, it is a breakdown of the family unit."

She said Lance's parents had split when he was young. He spent some time with his mother in Masterton before joining his father in Auckland.

He was a talented rugby player but was put out of two schools after being unable to conform. He found work with a roofer but had not worked for some time.