Stolen car driven wrong way on motorway before crash
Two people have been seriously injured after a head-on crash on a motorway at Wainui in the Auckland region.
One of the vehicles was a stolen Toyota Aqua being tracked by the Police Eagle helicopter.
Moments before the crash this morning, police said the driver entered the Northern Motorway at the Wainui off-ramp and drove against the flow of traffic.
"The car travelled roughly 50 metres before it collided with an unsuspecting member of the public, who effectively had no time to react," Inspector Danny Meade said.
The crash happened about 6.20am and led to a two-hour-long closure of the motorway.
The vehicle being tracked had been stolen from a property in Constellation Drive overnight and was spotted in Westgate about 5.35am.
Eagle located the car and kept watch as it drove along State Highway 18 and onto the Northern Motorway.
"Near Oteha Valley Road, police signalled to the driver to stop, but the vehicle allegedly fled at speed," Meade said.
He said officers didn't pursue, however "Eagle kept tracking the car, relaying its movements through a subdivision in Wainui."
"While officers on the ground were preparing spike strips, the driver, for some unknown reason, entered the motorway in the wrong direction.
"It is incredible that nobody died."
The Serious Crash Unit carried out a scene examination and the motorway reopened about 8.15am.
Meade said the investigation into the crash was ongoing and both drivers were being treated in hospital.
Charges were being considered against the youth alleged to have been driving the stolen Toyota.
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NZ Herald
9 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Kaikohe crash: Mum's horror moment realising 11yo daughter wasn't among survivors
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There were two teens – Koni watched them go, as did another eyewitness across the road with a long view down Omapere Rd. That eyewitness, who did not want to be named, watched the teenagers sprinting away, abandoning the white Toyota, which was stuck on a retaining wall. Koni told the Herald she thought it was just the one car at that stage. The people-mover filled with children had been flung uphill and across a vegetable garden, and was behind a tall fence in the backyard across the road. The corner of Hillcrest and Omapere Rds in Kaikohe, showing the backyard where the people-mover containing Staci Walkley, 11, came to rest. She died in the incident. Koni waited, partly unsure as to what had happened but also not wanting to be rubbernecking. As she watched, a woman emerged from behind the fence. Koni remembered the woman – it was Candice Walkley – shouting: 'Catch him, he's taken off down there.' 'The mum was just yelling the whole time, it was just the shock. 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David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He joined the Herald in 2004. Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
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