Car parking review after vehicle falls

The Auckland Council is reviewing the safety of its car parks after a car plunged 14 metres off an Auckland parking building.

Simon Hartnoll drove his car off the fifth floor of the Tournament-owned York St car park in Newmarket on March 22, 2016, seriously injuring his female passenger.

Hartnoll, who was also seriously injured in the incident, was charged with careless driving causing injury in January. He is now two days into a trial at the Auckland District Court.

On Monday the court heard how the couple went flying over the edge of the building after Hartnoll leant over to kiss his date and accidentally put his foot on the accelerator while the gearbox was not in park.

Yesterday, senior compliance adviser at the council William Smeed told the court he assessed the building with an engineer after the crash.

Smeed said the wire railings were inadequate to stop a vehicle accelerating through them.

‘‘But they were adequate for what they were built for at the time, which was pedestrian safety.’’

The building consent, standards and the code of compliance were checked and it did comply with standards at the time, he said.

’’Auckland Transport is well aware of the incident as I understand it is taking measures to get their car parks up to standard even if it’s above the time they were built.’’

Auckland Transport spokesman Mark Hannan said following the 2016 incident, it engaged Wiltek Maintenance to conduct a wheel stop and general floor maintenance audit for all its car park buildings. No major issues were found.