“I saw the oncoming SUV, and it really looked like it was going to be a head-on crash.”
The incident happened on State Highway 2 just out of Paeroa at about midday yesterday.
A line of traffic had built up behind the campervan. It was being driven at about 65km/h.
The motorist who filmed the incident said Paeroa, only a couple of minutes’ drive away, would have been “the logical place” for the camper to stop and let other motorists pass.
“We’d only been behind the campervan for a few minutes when it happened.
“I assumed the grey Supra would merge back in front of me.
“But it just kept going. Somehow, they squeezed between the oncoming car and the campervan, and they may well have made glancing contact with both.”
While some social media users believed the driver of the campervan was partly at fault for not pulling over to allow the cars behind it to pass, most were gobsmacked by the actions of the driver in the car.
“These people deserve to lose their licence immediately,” one user said.
“That is sickening,” another said. “Very close to destroying lives.”
“Nothing can excuse that type of driving. They deserve to be found and punished. That overtake was very dangerous”, another commenter added.
A police spokeswoman told the Herald she could “not immediately see that police received a report of this at the time”.
Earlier yesterday, an 18-year-old was charged with multiple offences, including reckless driving and possession of cannabis for supply, after he was caught speeding at twice the legal limit in Auckland.
Police officers spotted two cars speeding on an Auckland motorway at about 4am Saturday, with one driver stopping while the other sped off.
Police said the driver increased his speed on the motorway and had several near-misses before entering a residential area, where he again failed to stop.
Police used the Eagle helicopter to monitor the car as it continued to drive dangerously and the driver and a passenger eventually abandoned it in Panmure and fled on foot.
Police arrested them shortly afterwards.
Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers business, breaking news and local stories from Tāmaki Makaurau. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.
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