Rodney's local board has made a call for the Government to provide leadership around vehicle access to the country's coastline following yesterday's tragic accident that killed a teenage beachgoer.

One person died on Muriwai Beach yesterday. A ute was seen “hooning” on the beach before it flipped, throwing a teenage girl from the car and crushing her. Images from the scene of the accident showed a red Toyota ute with a badly crumpled front bonnet and roof.

A witness to the incident’s aftermath, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Herald he saw a girl in the back of the vehicle while it was doing doughnuts hours before the fatal crash.

“We finished fishing and, on our way back, we came across [the accident scene], and a fireman told us a girl had been killed. We saw her body lying outside the ute just by the rear tyre," the witness said.

Talking to Summer Breakfast this morning, Rodney Local Board chairman Brent Bailey said he ultimately believed the beach had reached a point where vehicles needed to be banned altogether.

Bailey said that some beach users should be permitted a licence to access the shore with their vehicle - such as fishermen taking their gear to their remote spots - as these people would be considered reasonable users of the beach and would be willing to comply with rules.

"But we've been trying to progress managed access to the system for, to me, it seems like years, certainly my entire career as a local board politician - it's just difficult to make any progress," said Bailey.

"It's legislatively difficult to impose speed limits. It's legally complex to manage access because of the central government's lack of leadership in this space, I mean all the coastline of New Zealand is potentially a road and controlled by the rules NZTA sets, so we would like some leadership from central government on this stuff to set some legislative support for keeping people safe."

Bailey called Sunday's incident a tragedy and admitted that while vehicles had been banned from Muriwai during the fire season over the summer, the beach was reopened on January 15 for all cars to access again.

"Personally, I think we've reached the point where we can't afford to have vehicles on the beach with the bathers and the surfers, the fishermen and dog walkers and the horses," he said.

"You know, there's just too much potential conflict and too much tragedy."

The chairman said Muriwai was a regional park not a public road, as some have the misconception of believing. Park staff try to supervise and direct how people behave, which reduces conflict - but Bailey said people still won't comply.

In 2015, Bailey said, four people were killed in a tragic accident involving vehicles on the beach and other accidents have occurred also involving casualties.

"The number of Aucklanders who want to access that space is such that we could probably exclude the vehicles and it wouldn't do any damage at all," he said.

"We've got to launch boats, we've got emergency vehicles and rangers needing access to the beach, but what we don't need is a bunch of unsupervised dumbarses screaming around the place in four-wheel-drives destroying the ecosystem and scattering pedestrians like chickens.

"You know? It's what we don't need."

Auckland Council decided in October last year to close the beach in an attempt to manage the impact of vehicles on the ecosystem, banning them from driving on the beach during the height of summer and other holidays such as Guy Fawkes weekend.

“Unpermitted vehicle activity is having a major impact on some of our most threatened species and damaging the sand dunes,” said Auckland Council regional parks principal specialist Stephen Bell.

“We’ve already had reports of serious harm caused to wildlife in the area. People need to understand how fragile this environment is and be aware of how they impact on their surroundings, especially other visitors, shorebirds and animals on the beach.”

According to New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi’s website, vehicles must travel no faster than 30km/h on beaches when pedestrians are present, or up to 60km/h if the beach is free of pedestrians.

An Auckland Council spokesperson said they were aware of the “tragic accident” on the beach but had no further information as they had not been briefed by emergency services.

Fire and Emergency NZ (Fenz) shift manager Paul Radden confirmed four appliances attended the accident site on Sunday, with crews from Muriwai, Shelly Beach, Whenuapai and Helensville called to the scene at 2.38pm. Fenz referred the NZME to police as the lead agency.