Police car door ripped off on Awanui Straight

CLOSE CALL: The damaged police car at the scene of yesterday's accident.

An unmarked police car had its driver's door all but torn off yesterday morning, when it was struck by another vehicle on the Awanui Straight.

The Kerikeri-based officer who had been driving the car, and was standing beside it, was unhurt, but judged to have been very lucky.

Northland road policing manager Inspector Wayne Ewers said the officer had stopped a vehicle heading towards Kaitaia, pulling off to the side of the road in front of it. Another car travelling south got past the first vehicle, but struck the door of the police car.

The driver stopped a short distance away, where he was spoken to at length by police.

The Mid North officers were in the Kaitaia area as part of Operation Distractions, which Inspector Ewers said was going well. "A few" tickets had been issued to drivers for using cell phones, while yesterday's programme began with a checkpoint in Kaitaia, followed by Mangonui, Kaeo and back towards Kerikeri.

Meanwhile two men were rated as lucky to escape serious injury when a sports car skidded off State Highway 10, at the Waiare Road junction south of Kaeo, on Tuesday night, first hitting a signpost on the right-hand side of the road then crashing into bushes on the left.

Kaeo CFO Lindsay Murray said it appeared the driver had been heading south at about 10pm when he lost control on a corner, hit a signpost on the wrong side of the highway, over-corrected and ended up nose-down in bushes on the other side of the road.

Injuries appeared to be minor, but one occupant was taken to hospital in a neck brace as a precaution. The signpost was still standing but pointing in the wrong direction. On Tuesday afternoon a car rolled on Ngawha Springs Road, east of Kaikohe, coming to rest on its roof blocking one lane. When emergency services arrived two men, one with minor leg injuries, were at the scene. They claimed to be hitch-hikers, and said the driver had absconded.