City chaos as car hits pensioner

A three-car accident has left an elderly pedestrian in Whangarei Hospital with head and leg injuries and caused major disruption to central Whangarei.
Three other people were also hurt in the incident, near the Walton St and Vine St intersection,  about 1.40pm yesterday. The crash took out a power pillar box and blocked busy Walton St for at least two hours.
A 73-year-old Northland man lay in a pool of blood after being hit by one of the cars as it mounted the kerb.
Ambulance staff stabilised him before rushing him to Whangarei Hospital, where he was  reported as being in a stable condition.
Witnesses said he had been thrown across a car's bonnet after it crossed lanes and  went out of control while trying to avoid two other cars that had  collided in Walton St.
The elderly occupants of the car that hit him, and the driver of  one of the other cars, were also taken to hospital after being treated at the scene.
Northland St John operations manager Tony Devanney confirmed four people were taken to hospital in three ambulances.
Mr Devanney said the elderly pedestrian had sustained moderate head injuries and a fractured leg.
Two elderly people from one of the cars  were taken in another ambulance with minor injuries. A 50-year-old man from the other car was taken to the hospital  with a minor neck injury.
Police officers from the Serious Crash Unit are investigating the accident.
Three businesses in Walton St were without power for two hours as Northpower staff repaired the pillar box wiped out by the vehicle that careened about 30m  along the footpath. An Indian restaurant and neighbouring noodle shop would have had to close anyway because of damage caused to their street-front windows and walls as the car scraped along them.
Among stunned onlookers as ambulances, police and fire crews worked at the chaotic  scene was a young man who had been only millimetres away from serious injury himself. Jae Goffe , 18, was on the footpath outside the noodle shop at the same time the pedestrian was hit.
He said he heard the screech of the vehicle as it shot on to the footpath and literally felt it skim his leg as he threw himself through the door of the shop. Mr Goffe did not see the car hit the other man.
Sitting inside his darkened shop with its damaged frontage, and debris from the crash lying several metres inside, Kaew Navapanich described the incident as shocking. He said he heard the screech at about the same time as Mr Goffe  came flying through the door, then heard a loud crash as the car hit the pillar box.
The car  came to a halt only when it crashed into the single pole holding up the veranda roof wrapping around several shops on the Walton St and Clyde St corner. Witnesses were concerned that if the damaged pole had been completely knocked over, the roof might have collapsed.
Jason Walker was in his vehicle on the  corner when he saw the car on the footpath "screaming" towards him. He said had the vehicle not hit the pole the accident might have involved more vehicles.
Northpower communications officer Vanessa Wilson said the company could only temporarily repair the badly damaged pillar box until the arrival of parts enabled its total replacement.