National MP Tom Rutherford praised for helping distressed man on busy Tauranga highway

National MP Tom Rutherford in an earlier photo on State Highway 2, where he helped a distressed man yesterday. Photo / David Hall

• National Bay of Plenty MP Tom Rutherford stopped his car to help a distressed man on State Highway 2 outside Tauranga.
• Rutherford and others blocked traffic and talked to the man, eventually getting him to safety.
• Police arrived and took the man to hospital; Rutherford emphasised he acted as a community member.

National MP Tom Rutherford has been praised for his bravery after he stopped his car on a highway outside Tauranga to talk with a distressed man in his mid-20s on the busy road.

The Bay of Plenty MP today said he was returning from the Te Puna Harvest Market with his fiancée on State Highway 2 in a constant stream of traffic about 3pm on Saturday when he encountered a man standing in the lane he was travelling in.

“He was moving between lanes as vehicles travelled at 80km/h.

“We were the first there and pulled over, hopped out and ran to talk with him to get him at least into the middle section of the road,” Rutherford said.

“Thankfully, a couple of others from the community stopped and parked their vehicles on either side so we could block a lane on each side at least. It is two lanes each way.”

Rutherford said he and another man who stopped sat with the man and talked with him about what he was going through, and after about 25 minutes, they got him to get into one of their vehicles, where he could wait safely for further help to arrive.

The police arrived and took the man to the hospital, the MP said.

State Highway 2 north of Tauranga, where Saturday's incident occurred, is a busy section of road.

Leonie Wilson also pulled over on SH2 after seeing the man running between the lanes and called the police.

She saw Rutherford standing in the middle of the road, talking to the man and trying to get him off the road to safety.

“What Tom did was so brave, standing in the middle of the highway risking his own life to help this guy he didn’t know,” she said.

Rutherford said it just so happened he was driving past yesterday and did what anyone would do to look after people in the community, and glad there was a positive outcome.

The MP was hesitant to talk about the incident, saying: “I didn’t do it as the MP, I did it as Tom.”

Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.