The Lake Macquarie community was in mourning on Saturday after news of the death of a Cardiff South teenager, killed in an alleged hit-and-run on Macquarie Road at Warners Bay.
Teenagers and parents gathered in a vigil at the scene on Saturday afternoon, where flowers and learner and provisional driver plates were laid in an improvised memorial to the 14-year-old victim.
A 21-year-old driver is facing a string of dangerous driving charges after a boy, understood to be a student of Warners Bay High School, was found unresponsive down an embankment in the small hours of Saturday morning.
Police have since indicated the crash happened around 5.30pm on Friday evening. Officers attached to the Crash Investigation unit scoured the crime scene about 800 metres north of the Medcalf Street intersection on Macquarie Road, where the boy's body was found near an electric scooter.
About an hour after the discovery, police said, officers arrested a 21-year-old at a Maryland home and took him to Belmont Police Station where his license was suspended and he was charged with dangerous driving occasioning death among three other related offences.
Police confirmed the tragic news on Saturday morning that the boy, who has yet to be formally identified, died at the scene.
In a brief statement, the NSW Department of Education extended its condolences to the Warners Bay High School community and said counselling and wellbeing support would be made available for staff and students.
"We are deeply saddened by the tragic death of a student from Warners Bay High School," a spokesperson for the department said, "Our sincere condolences and deepest sympathies go to the student's family and the broader school community."
The driver has since been released on conditional bail, police said. He is expected to face court on September 13.
