Ute takes off after dinghy hits scooter

The last thing Perry McDiarmid expected when he was riding his motor scooter home from work was to be hit on the head by a flying boat.

Adding insult to injury, the driver of the ute dropped off two passengers to help the injured cyclist but then took off.

McDiarmid, a 17- year- old apprentice builder, was knocked off his bike after an aluminium dinghy flew off the vehicle he was following down the Onerahi hill, heading toward Whangarei, on Thursday evening.

“Basically, the dinghy was on the ute with the front of it up on top of the cab. I’d noticed it only had one rope tying it down.

“Next thing, the front of the dinghy lifted up and it came across my helmet, hit me on the head and knocked me off my bike,” McDiarmid said.

The under- 18 Northland hockey team’s star goalie has a strained neck and a torn bicep, meaning he’s likely to miss a season as well as being off work for at least seven weeks.

Doctors at Whangarei Hospital told him he was “very lucky”.

McDiarmid spent one night in hospital after having x- rays and a CT scan.

He is surprised the driver of the ute did not stop to help, although he dropped his passengers off.

“They said they didn’t know him. One of them said he’d been at the wharf and helped the driver put his dinghy on the ute, then the guy offered him a lift to town.

The woman said she’d been hitchhiking and the driver had stopped for her at the top of the [ Onerahi] hill.”

McDiarmid said he was angry about the accident that has left him with at least one injury which could yet require surgery, his bicep muscle. It also smashed his uninsured scooter.

Sergeant Rachel Wood confirmed the police had the dinghy and would like “to have a chat” to the driver of the older style, dark coloured ute.