The car hurtled from the Tournament parking building on York St, Newmarket, in March last year. Photo/ File
The car hurtled from the Tournament parking building on York St, Newmarket, in March last year. Photo/ File
A driver whose car plunged five floors from a central Auckland car park last year accidentally hit the accelerator, a court has heard.
Simon Hartnoll, 39, appeared in the Auckland District Court this morning charged with careless driving causing injury.
The judge-alone trial is set to run for two days.
Hartnoll and a female companion, 30, were in his car on the fifth floor of a Tournament car parking building on Newmarket's York St in March 2016, the court heard.
The pair had recently had dinner and planned to go ten pin bowling.
The court heard today that Hartnoll had parked his car and applied the handbrake, but had not put his car in park.
While leaning over while inside the car, he hit the accelerator pedal, causing the car to lurch forward and through a barrier, plunging to the street below.
The car hit a parked Nissan below, narrowly missing two women who were inside it at the time.
