Driver turned in front of truck

❛ He does not understand how you could not see a big orange truck coming towards you. He thought he could have killed her

[Wong], himself or someone else if a car had been coming in the

opposite direction

A HONG KONG policewoman holidaying in New Zealand who turned into the path of an oncoming truck was lucky to have survived the resulting crash and not seriously injured someone, the Alexandra District Court has heard.

Wai Yee Wong (46) appeared in the Alexandra District Court yesterday, charged with careless driving causing injury on the WanakaLuggate highway on April 23.

Wong had turned right on to State Highway 84 from the Puzzling World car park when a truck was approaching.

The truck braked heavily but crashed into the front of her car.

Judge Michael Crosbie said the truck driver said it was ‘‘mindblowing’’ how Wong had pulled out in front of him.

‘‘He does not understand how you could not see a big orange truck coming towards you. He thought he could have killed her [Wong], himself or someone else, if a car had been coming in the opposite direction.’’

The truck driver suffered fractures to two lower vertebrae, and compression to two discs, and had still not returned to work.

Wong told Judge Crosbie, through a translator, she had been a police officer for 26 years in Hong Kong.

Counsel Tanya Surrey said Wong had misjudged the distance between the cars.

Judge Crosbie said it was lucky she had not suffered ‘‘serious injury or even death’’.

Wong was disqualified from driving for 18 months in New Zealand, and ordered to pay $3000 in emotional harm reparation to the truck driver and $130 in court costs.

Ms Surrey said Wong planned to return to Hong Kong on May 3.