He pulled alongside the car again and noticed the driver gazing ahead, still paying no attention to his surroundings.
In a post on the Waikato police Facebook page today, an officer wrote that all three vehicles were now approaching a left-hand bend and were fortunate there had been no cars coming the other way.
"Knowing something needed to be done now Sergeant Pierce overtook the car, positioned the cop car in front and began to slow it down using his car. Fortunately they ended up partially off the road, on the right side of the road.
"As Rob put his handbrake on and the patrol car into park, the driver of the vehicle still had his foot on the accelerator, causing its front wheels to spin in the gravel. Rob hurried to the vehicle to turn the car off," the post said.
He then discovered the 62-year-old was having a seizure.
Cherry credited the officer's actions in preventing a serious crash,
"He saved a real chance of a fatality. It was really heroic. Very brave."
Police also praised the actions of the truck driver who helped manage traffic as paramedics raced to the scene.
