Police investigating after incidents at New Plymouth "car ev
Inspector Darin Haenga, Acting Taranaki Area Commander:
Police are extremely frustrated and concerned at the
callous behaviour
exhibited by people attending a “car
event” in New Plymouth last night.
Police became
aware of the event after it was communicated on social
media
during the week.
Officers spoke to
organisers regarding concerns such an event could
breach
Alert Level 2 restrictions and advised against
holding the event.
Disappointingly, organisers went
ahead with the event and it was attended by
hundreds of
people.
Shortly before 10pm, around a hundred cars
were in the Connett Road/De
Havilland Drive area, with
some of them performing skids and burnouts.
At
10.30pm, a car doing burnouts lost control and collided with
a parked
vehicle, also striking a woman standing beside
the parked car and crushing
her between the two cars.
The woman was transported to Taranaki Base Hospital,
where she remains in a
stable condition.
An
18-year-old Inglewood man has been charged with sustained
loss of traction
in relation to this incident and will be
appearing in New Plymouth District
Court on 6 November.
Police are not ruling out further charges and would
like to hear from anyone
who may have video footage of
the crash and the events leading up to it.
At 11pm,
Police responded to a crash on Centennial Drive, after a
vehicle not
involved in the “car event” skidded on
diesel that participants had
poured on the road, and
collided with a parked car.
Fortunately the driver of this car was not injured in the crash.
However,
the patrol car of a police officer responding to the crash
was
surrounded by a group who had moved to Centennial
Drive from Connett Road.
A male jumped on the bonnet
of the patrol car and smashed the windscreen,
while
others threw bottles and cans at the patrol car, smashing
the rear
window and also causing damage to the body of
the car.
The officer was very lucky to not be seriously injured in this incident.
Police are aware
there will have been participants in this “car
event”
who are as horrified as we are at the appalling
behaviour displayed by those
involved in these incidents
and other unsafe driving behaviour during the
night.
We would ask them to do the right thing and get in touch
with us to provide
any information, including video
footage, which may help us identify those
responsible.
We would also like to hear from any members of the
public who were not
involved but may have witnessed
something which may assist our enquiries.
Reports
can be made online via
105:
https://www.police.govt.nz/use-105#online-report-options