Palmerston crash: Police seek Christian Mpongo, man with history of driving offences

As NT police search for Christian Mpongo in relation to a fatal head-on crash, records reveal he has faced courts for a litany of driving offences, and most recently faced serious criminal charges.

Christian Mpongo allegedly fled the scene of a deadly crash in Darwin on Friday afternoon.

Police are searching for a man with serious prior criminal charges – including a long list of drink driving offences – who was allegedly behind the wheel of a car that crashed and killed a man in the Northern Territory on Friday afternoon.

Christian Mpongo was allegedly driving a car which collided head-on with another car carry three individuals, with one passenger, a 33-year-old male, declared dead at the scene.

Mr Mpongo was most recently before the courts in August for a raft of charges including breach of bail, threatening to kill a person and multiple counts of trespass, contravening a domestic violence order and aggravated assault.

He has a long record of appearing before the courts on dozens of occasions for a litany of driving offences including high-range drink driving – with The Australian obtaining records dating back to 2017. He is not facing current charges.

Between 2017 and 2023 he appeared before the courts on more than 30 occasions, charged with high-, medium- and low-range drink driving offences, driving while disqualified, driving while unlicensed, driving without due care and driving motor vehicle unsafe to drive.

Emergency services responding to a crash on Kirkland Rd on May 16. Picture: Harry Brill

In a statement, police said they were still searching for the driver, describing him as a “dark skinned male of African appearance, wearing a purple shirt, light shorts and a dark coloured cast on his left arm”.

They did not make reference to his alleged criminal history or provide his name or photograph to assist the public in identifying him.

Police said detectives from the Major Crash Unit were continuing to investigate the fatal crash in Palmerston which occurred on Friday afternoon.

Police are searching for Christian Mpongo.

He was recently before the courts for serious alleged offending and allegedly fled the scene of a crash in Darwin on Friday afternoon where a person died.

“Emergency services attended the scene and a 36-year-old male passenger of a vehicle carrying three people was declared deceased,” a police spokesman said.

“The remaining two male occupants, aged 80 and 35, were conveyed to hospital in stable conditions.

“The driver of the second vehicle allegedly fled the scene immediately following the crash,” police said. “Investigations into the cause of the crash remain ongoing.”

Detective Sergeant Richard Musgrave said: “Sadly our members have now been on scene to the second fatal on Kirkland Rd within two days.

“That is now two families who have lost a loved one.”