SMOKING cannabis and getting behind the wheel of a motor vehicle proved lethal for three Rotorua drivers killed in separate road crashes.

Sixteen-year-old Margaret Leef died at Rotorua Hospital as a result of injuries suffered in a crash at Sulphur Point, near the Government Gardens on October 8, 2002.

Yesterday at an inquest into her death, Wellington-based coroner Ian Smith heard how she had smoked the equivalent of one cannabis cigarette within hours of the crash.

Another Rotorua driver, whose name was suppressed at the family's request, was killed in a crash on Rewarewa St in Owhata on February 2 this year.

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