SPEED DEMON
Learner driver clocked at staggering 212km/h
Alearner driver clocked by police doing 212km/h has pleaded guilty to illegal street racing. Tepiwa Michael Peter Keremete Riwai, 32, appeared in the Hutt Valley District Court on Thursday and admitted a charge of operating a vehicle in a race or exhibition of speed, after a patrolling police officer detected him on State Highway 2.
Riwai was driving a Holden Commodore about 9pm on March 8 with his partner, a restricted licence holder, in the car. He held only a learner licence and was driving in breach of it, the summary of facts said.
Somewhere between Avalon and the Haywards Hill interchange in the Hutt Valley, another Holden Commodore pulled up alongside Riwai’s car.
The two drivers accelerated north on the highway, with Riwai reaching the speed of 212km/h. The other driver allegedly reached 186km/h.
There were other vehicles on the road at the time.
A stationary police patrol spotted the two cars and pursued them, stopping Riwai near Silverstream and arresting him. The other driver, 38-year-old Jason Leslie Campbell, was stopped a short time later in Upper Hutt and was also arrested.
Both drivers had their licences suspended for 28 days and their cars impounded.
Riwai initially told police he thought he recognised the other driver and wanted to get away from him. But he soon admitted it developed into a race, and accepted what he had done was dangerous to the public and himself, the summary of facts said.
Campbell allegedly told police he was driving in convoy with Riwai, and that his car could not reach the speed he is accused of driving at.
He has pleaded not guilty to the racing charge and will reappear in court at a later date for case review.
Riwai, who has previous charges, will be sentenced on August 22 in the Hutt Valley District Court.
National road policing manager Superintendent Steve Greally last week said drivers were making bad choices.
His comments came after the horror crash at Waverley in South Taranaki, which claimed seven lives, including that of a baby and a young girl. “I think the most common cause of crashes is poor decision-making on behalf of our drivers out there,” Greally said.
Riwai’s guilty plea comes a month after two motorcyclists were spotted riding at speeds above 300km/h south of the Rimutaka Range.
They were seen on June 2 travelling at 247km/h on State Highway 2 and, upon realising they’d been seen, accelerated to more than 300km/h.
Upper Hutt mayor Wayne Guppy said the speeds the motorcyclists were going was “absolute lunacy”.
In 2016 a motorcyclist was also caught doing 232km/h on a Waikato road while trying to flee police. The rider was wearing shorts and had a suspended learner licence when he was clocked.
Stu Kearns, former head of the Waitemata¯ Serious Crash Unit, said at the time it was a “suicidal speed”.
The 2018 road toll stands at 203, up nine from the same time last year and a staggering 52 from 2014.