Two arrested after fleeing chaotic crash scene
Lunchtime was abruptly interrupted when residents of a Palmerston North suburb heard a loud screech as the rear end of a car slammed into a tree.
‘‘It was a hell of a bang,’’ one resident said as she dropped her lunch to see what the commotion was about.
The vehicle crashed on John F Kennedy Drive in Milson, Palmerston North, at 12.25pm on Wednesday.
A tyre flew off the Holden, landing in a creek about 20 metres away from the crash site, the resident said.
A senior police constable at the scene said the driver was overtaking a car when he lost control and hit a tree.
The two people involved in the crash fled the scene on foot, but were found a short time later with the help of police dogs, he said.
The incident came a day after a police pursuit of a suspected stolen car driven by a youth ended with a crash, injuring a member of the public.
Police mounted a 20-minute chase after the driver of the car, reported as stolen and possibly involved in a petrol station driveoff, ignored their attempts to pull it over about 4.30pm on Tuesday.
The chase came to an end when the car crashed into two other vehicles, believed to have been stationary at the time, near the intersection of Vogel St and Tremaine Ave.
The driver, a boy, fled and is still wanted by police.
A police spokesman said the officers involved in the chase described the driving as ‘‘atrocious’’.
The boy crossed the centre line into oncoming traffic and had no regard for pedestrians, other road users, or the public in general, he said.
The two people involved in Wednesday’s incident were arrested, but it was too early to say what they would be charged with.
Another resident, who did not want to be named, said she heard the car accelerate before it smashed into the tree on Wednesday.
‘‘There was no-one in the car. Just a guy outside the car holding a big petrol can.’’
She asked the man whether he was the driver and if anyone was injured, after seeing a child’s car seat in the back.
‘‘He said, ‘no, it was a young fellow over there’, and then wondered off.’’
The resident often saw the car speeding out of Venus Way and driving recklessly along John F Kennedy Drive.
‘‘There’s always cars doing big burnouts here.’’
Often people sped down the twolane street and used it as a drag strip, she said.