Pursued car smashes into corner dairy (+video)

The frontage of a Pt Chevalier dairy was almost completely taken out last night after a vehicle smashed straight into it.

A local resident said he saw the people-mover and a pursuing police car hurtle by his house at "crazy" speeds and then heard a loud smash.

Just after 9pm, firefighters cut a woman out of the wreckage.

The woman, the sole occupant of the vehicle, was taken to Auckland City Hospital in a critical condition, St John Ambulance spokesman Norman Ngatai said.

The owners of Point Superette on the corner of Pt Chevalier Rd and Raymond St - which leads to the local sailing club - surveyed the damage to their shop as about 100 bystanders watched police, fire and ambulance crews work at the scene.

Police later issued a statement that said a patrol car had spotted the woman's vehicle travelling at high speed along Pt Chevalier Rd.

By the time the officer had done a u-turn, he had lost sight of the speeding vehicle, but he came across the crash a short time later.

However, the local resident who spoke to the Weekend Herald said the police car, in pursuit, had gone past his house further up Pt Chevalier Rd at high speed.

"I thought it was just crazy, and unnecessary for them to be going so fast. I couldn't believe the speed the cop car was going."

The man said the noise the woman's vehicle was making and the fact it smashed straight into the corner dairy made him think the throttle might have been stuck.