An accused drink-driver doing doughnuts lost control, crashed through 30m of fence and then fled the scene, leaving an injured friend behind, police say.
A 27-year-old man has been charged with dangerous driving and drink-driving after the Skeets Rd incident. The man allegedly blew 833mcg when tested, more than twicethe legal limit of 400mcg.
Masterton police Senior Sergeant Carolyn Watson said the man, who had two passengers in the car, was heard by residents spinning his car for about 10 minutes before crashing about 9.20pm on Monday.
"The car was written off, they were very lucky no one was killed," said Ms Watson.
She said after the crash, the driver and one of the passengers left the car, leaving the female passenger behind, but were tracked by dogs.
A Skeets Rd resident, who did not want to be named, said she had been watching the car do doughnuts out of the window when it disappeared behind another building, after which she heard everything go quiet.
She went down to the road to see what was happening a short while later, and was approached by two men from the car who asked for a ride. When she said no and told them they should wait for police to arrive, she said the men walked up to her house and asked the woman's mother if she would give them a ride.
Another Skeets Rd resident, Mike McGruddy, who lost a letterbox in the crash, said he heard the crash even through the noisy winds on Monday night.
"I heard the doughnuts, and then I heard a bang-sort of a noise, and then 20 minutes later I got a call," Mr McGruddy said.
When he went out to have a look the female passenger was on her own, being attended to by paramedics. He said all sides of the car were "totalled" and that they were lucky to miss, a 1.8m high sequoia tree.
"If they'd hit that, they would've been dead. If they'd hit that instead of my letterbox they wouldn't be here at all."
The intersection of West Bush Rd and Skeets Rd, and along Upper Manaia Rd has been a common place for boy racers to come in the past year or so.
"It's almost a bit of a circuit, but they don't stay long enough to call the cops," he said.
