I did it to save baby, says highway hero

Pat Ratu said it was a miracle the drunken driver did not collide with another vehicle. Picture / Dean Purcell

The truck driver who forced a drunk woman driver off the road says he did it because his "heart went out" to her 2-year-old daughter in the passenger seat.

Police have labelled Pat Ratu a hero for jack-knifing his truck on the road south of Piopio in King Country on Wednesday night to stop a 44-year-old Waiuku woman who had driven drunk for hundreds of kilometres.

The woman, driving on a learner's licence, was later charged with drink-driving after testing at almost three times the legal limit.

Mr Ratu, who transports cars from Auckland to New Plymouth for Carr and Haslam Ltd, said he thought the woman was going to drive off the road or into the path of a northbound vehicle. "I don't know how she missed any other cars. She cut into the wrong lane at almost every corner, and just as she pulled back to her lane a car or a truck would come past. It was a miracle."

But it was only upon glimpsing a tuft of a child's hair in the front seat that Mr Ratu, 47, realised the woman was not alone in the car.

"My heart went out for that little baby. The way the woman was driving with her baby in the car, that really pissed me right off."

He said attempts to pass the woman were thwarted a number of times when she cut in front of him.

"I had one last chance before she got to the Awakino Gorge. I put my foot down and thought, 'this is the last chance to stop her before she kills herself, her baby and somebody else'."

Mr Ratu got past the vehicle, slowed down and jack-knifed the truck across the road, forcing the car to pull to the side. He called police before taking the woman's keys.

"I said, 'Lady you shouldn't be driving, you are drunk'."

The little girl was distraught and crying. Otorohanga Constable Kent Morrissey said while police did not normally endorse such actions, under the circumstances Mr Ratu's actions were justified.

"I am full of praise for what he has done. It has turned out well."

Mr Morrissey said a number of open wine bottles were found in the car, and the woman appeared to have been drinking during her trip from Waiuku. She was bound for Hamilton but seemed to have become disoriented and had driven more than an hour and a half past there.

Child Youth and Family were called, with the woman's family, who collected her the next day from Te Kuiti. Her licence was immediately suspended for 28 days. She will appear in Te Kuiti District Court on October 28.

Philip Marsh, who followed the woman for about 10 minutes and waited by her car for police to arrive, said it was incredible no one was killed. "She was driving from one side of the road to the other. Dirt was flying from the side of the road. She nearly clipped a couple of cars coming the other way."