PM breaks silence on motorcade case

Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday broke her vow to say nothing about the speeding motorcade case in order to defend herself and sheet home the blame for it on the police.

"I would not have asked for urgent travel to go to rugby," she said.

"They advised my press secretary what plane could be caught. I accepted that advice, I got in the car."

Helen Clark has been under pressure from Opposition MPs to accept some responsibility for the speeding motorcade in July last year, which last week saw two policemen and a civilian driver convicted on charges of dangerous driving.

The Prime Minister had been in Waimate, South Canterbury, and when her flight from Timaru was cancelled, she had to get to Christchurch to catch a plane to Wellington where she was to attend a Bledisloe Cup match.

She told Newstalk ZB breakfast host Paul Holmes she was following police advice to catch a flight that resulted in the motorcade travelling up to 170km/h between Waimate and Christchurch Airport.

She also disputed the sworn evidence offered during the trial by the motorcade driver, Constable Simon Vincent.

In a videotaped police interview played during the trial, Mr Vincent said he recalled seeing Helen Clark in the VIP car behind him as he drove the lead vehicle.

"She was smiling and appeared to be enjoying the ride is how I would put it," he said.

"She would have been most definitely aware of what was going on in front of her and around her. I cannot recall seeing her engrossed in any paperwork or anything like that."

When Mr Vincent's comments were put to her yesterday, Helen Clark disputed them, implying it would have been impossible to see.

"That officer gave evidence that I was sitting behind the driver and leaning over to the left into the middle of the car. Anyone who has seen any of the footage of that case would see I wasn't sitting behind the driver at all, I was sitting in the passenger side."

She said she had tested, while travelling at 50km/h, whether she could look back and see anything of a person seated behind the front-seat passenger. "Of course you can't."

After the trio were convicted last week, Helen Clark said she would not be commenting in case appeals were lodged and because of the convention that members of the Executive did not criticise court judgments.

That also went by the board yesterday when she effectively disputed the judge's conclusion that there had been a couple of points of danger during that journey.

"That is what the judge decided and I don't want to comment on his decision. All I can say is as a passenger, like Jim Sutton who also gave evidence, I felt in no danger whatsoever."

A spokesman said yesterday she was speaking in a weekly radio slot and fielded all questions put to her. She would not be commenting further.