Hamilton burnouts: Driver charged, bystander seriously injured following ‘antisocial’ gathering involving 300 cars

A 20-year-old man has been charged with performing a burnout and injuring a person after a large gathering of “anti-social road users” in Hamilton.

Police were called to Airport Rd at 11pm on Saturday, where about 300 cars had gathered and about 20 were doing burnouts.

Waikato road policing manager Inspector Jeff Penno said the group dispersed when police arrived.

“Over the course of the night, police received multiple reports of other large groups of anti-social road users at other locations around the city and outlying areas,” Penno said.

“In one of these instances, a man was struck by a car doing burnouts on Horotiu Bridge Rd at around 12.45am.”

Penno said the driver left without stopping to help the injured man who was taken to Waikato Hospital in a serious condition.

“While no arrests were made at the time, police sourced and reviewed relevant CCTV and online footage and would continue to identify and locate anyone we can identify committing offences,” Penno said.

The 20-year-old man has been remanded on bail and is due to reappear in Hamilton District Court on May 30.

He was charged with operating a vehicle in a manner that caused sustained loss of traction, which caused injury, and failing to stop to ascertain injury.

The vehicle was impounded for 28 days and ordered off the road.

Penno said a “significant investigation” was under way.

Police said they expected to impound more vehicles, and lay further charges.

Anyone with information that could help police can contact police via 105 and reference Operation Shadow.