Evasive action after SUV drives into harbour
AUCKLAND: Two people scrambled on to the roof of their vehicle after it was accidentally driven into the sea and sank near Auckland Harbour Bridge yesterday .
The black BMW SUV bobbed in the water then floated, submerged up to its windows, before disappearing beneath the surface.
The incident happened about 1.45pm, when the vehicle careered off the edge of a car park in a public reserve in Northcote Point.
Noone was injured in the incident at Sulphur Beach Reserve, which is believed to have happened when the driver accidentally missed the brake pedal.
The car park at the reserve has no railing to stop cars from driving off the edge.
A witness, who did not wish to be named, said he was asleep in his house truck when he heard a scraping sound.
‘‘I looked out my window and I could see the car teetering on the edge of the sea wall here,’’ he said.
‘‘There were two people in the front and I yelled ‘don’t move’.
‘‘The car was rocking, stopping, rocking, stopping.’’
The man said he told the couple in the SUV he would drive his van closer and secure a rope to their vehicle to stop them going over the edge.
But before he could get his van into place, the SUV was already in ‘‘the drink’’.
The vehicle then floated off towards moored yachts.
The couple scrambled out of their windows and on to the roof before the man called to them to swim to shore before it sank.
‘‘So they ran across the roof, jumped in the water and swam to shore, where they climbed up the sea wall.’’
The witness said the couple were very flustered by the time they made it to shore but said ‘‘something about a mat’’ getting stuck and stopping them pushing the brake pedal down, he said.
They were so flustered their words came out in a broken fashion, like ‘‘mat . . . stuck . . . and oh no’’, he said. — NZME