Man charged after footage of car blindly overtaking vehicles on rural Waikato road sparks police probe

A Hamilton man has been charged with driving in a dangerous manner after footage emerged of a car blindly overtaking vehicles on a rural Raglan road.

In the shocking footage, a car is seen passing vehicles on the highway, driving towards oncoming traffic before ducking back in the left lane as a motorcycle shoots past.

The grey vehicle then weaves out to pass another vehicle, before swerving back into the left lane to avoid an oncoming van on State Highway 23. The footage was shared by Stuff.

As a result, police say they have charged a 20-year-old man and he is due to appear in Hamilton District Court on December 18.

"We would like to sincerely thank the member of the public who brought this incident to our attention," a police spokeswoman said.

"It should serve as a timely reminder to all road users that your driving is not just being watched by police, but all road users and that police will take [action] when serious driving offending is brought to our attention."

Yesterday, manager Inspector Jeff Penno urged members of the public to report dangerous driving if they see it and said police needed the public's help to be alerted to any poor driving behaviour.

"Our top priority is to keep everyone safe on the roads but we can't do this alone," he said.

The footage followed a fatal weekend on the road, after three people died in as many single-vehicle crashes.

"Road safety is everyone's responsibility," Penno said.

"It's only by working together with our road-safety partners and the public that we can prevent the devastating harm that we saw on the Waikato roads this weekend.

"We encourage people to use the *555 number monitored 24/7 by a District Commander Centre."

SH23 between Raglan and Hamilton is one of the top-10 priority roads in the region, he said.

"There's an element of risk to the road, it is the nature of it.

"It's a slow piece of state highway and people need to drive to the conditions and not use the speed limit as a target."

He advised drivers to pull over if they found themselves being tailgated, and to let the vehicle behind pass them.

Drivers should maintain an ability to respond to multiple hazards on the roads, particularly driving in the heat of the day during the busy summer season, he said.

"There is no need to rush, it is not worth dying for."