Citizen’s arrest after car crashes off road
A man who crashed his car into a Ka¯ piti Coast property found himself under citizen’s arrest after he was tackled and pinned down by members of the public.
A neighbour says he heard screeching tyres and a ‘‘whomp’’ as the car slammed through the next door fence about 8pm on Tuesday night.
‘‘There were about 10 people converging on the scene and as we were arriving this guy kind of burst through the vegetation on foot. It was a citizen’s arrest.
‘‘We held him down and even after he stopped struggling, he was promising he would not run away but we just kept him there until the police came.’’
The crash happened just past a sweeping 30kmh corner in Raumati’s Matai Rd, a 50kmh zone.
The driver was tackled by a motorist he had passed moments before, the neighbour said.
‘‘We were holding him down on his face but when he stopped struggling I was just using my knee to hold him in place . . . My feeling at the end of it was I really felt sorry for the guy, he was pretty distraught and realised he really screwed up.’’
Another neighbour, who also did not want to be named, said he was on the scene seconds after he heard the crash. ‘‘The guy was booting it before he crashed . . . we heard him coming and then heard the smash.’’
There were a few people huddled around the driver who was being forcefully held down by two men, later on only one man was lying on top of him.
‘‘You could see he was injured as he had blood and cuts from the accident.’’
Nearby resident Grant Jackson said young children lived at the house and he was amazed nobody was hurt. ‘‘We heard the guy coming . . . he must have been doing twice the limit at least, he was booting it. The people that lived in the house last year had a trampoline exactly on the spot he crashed into.’’
A police spokeswoman said the driver was taken into custody and to hospital. ‘‘There are no charges at this stage.’’