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Scream as teen dies in blast
01 November 2006
By DAN HUTCHINSON
Screams filled the air as a Marlborough teenager lay dying after an LPG cylinder
his friends were inhaling from exploded in the back of their car.
Described as a "primo fellow" by friends, Thomas Hillman's death on Monday,
after someone lit a cigarette in the car, has prompted warnings from police and
anti-drug groups on the dangers of teen experimentation with hazardous
substances.
The other four teenagers in the car during the 9.30pm accident in Blenheim
suffered minor flash burns, but Hillman, 18, a construction worker, of Picton,
suffered fatal heat-inhalation injuries.
Witnesses described a bang that was followed by screams as more young people
arrived.
The Marlborough police acting area commander, Senior Sergeant Tony Sampson, said
some of the five teenagers, aged 16 to 18, had been inhaling gas from a 9kg
bottle inside a car parked in Howick Road.
"It appears that an attempt to light a cigarette in the vehicle a short time
later may have caused the explosion," he said.
Hillman had been with the group only briefly and it was unclear whether he had
inhaled gas, Sampson said.
Police and ambulance officers performed CPR at the scene, followed by a
sustained but unsuccessful effort by Wairau Hospital staff to save Hillman's
life.
Sampson said details on the gas inhalation were released as a public-safety
measure, and the case would be heard in more detail at an inquest.
Substance abuse involving flammable gases was an extremely dangerous practice,
Sampson said.
Hillman's family declined to comment yesterday.
A friend and former Queen Charlotte College classmate, Corey Winther, said he
was gutted when he heard the news.
"He was a primo fellow; cool as.
"He loved his rugby and I played in the First 15 with him. I was pretty gutted,"
he said.
Hillman left the college midway through last year to work for construction
company Crafar Crouch.
College principal Tom Parsons said Hillman had a sister at the school and five
members of the family had attended Queen Charlotte.
Students had made a card for family members and the school was offering its
counselling service to them and to students affected by the death.
An assembly had been held to inform students.
Several students were upset by the accident, Parsons said.
The college had an extensive drug education programme, and ignorance was no
excuse for students.
"School health programmes are such that there are no students in New Zealand
unaware of the dangers of huffing, sniffing, injecting – you name it," Parsons
said.
The chief executive of national addiction-treatment provider Care NZ, Tim
Harding, said LPG was just another substance to add to the list.
Experimenting with a dangerous gas like LPG could be put in the
youthful-misadventure category.
"The tragedy of this is there are youths who will try all sorts of stupid
things," he said.
New Zealand Drug and Alcohol Foundation executive director Ross Bell said
inhaling LPG was uncommon, but there had been at least two deaths.
An Ashburton teenager died in August last year after sniffing gas from a
barbecue gas bottle. There was a similar case in Wellington.
Bell said young people experimenting with substances was difficult to deal with
because they were often people who would not normally be identified as a risk.
"Monday's accident was different because he had died from the explosion rather
than the gas itself," he said.
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