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.
ENDS
Released by Detective Sergeant Brian Cameron, Otago Rural Police