Two arrests after hooning drivers cause havoc

TRAIL OF DAMAGE: Matapouri residents heard a bang and looked outside to see this car wrapped around a pole on Saturday. Kelly Ellis with the two family vehicles damaged by a 30-year-old boy racer on Saturday. PHOTOS/JOHN STONE.

Hooning drivers caused problems across Northland at the weekend, with cars and gates damaged and two alleged "boy racers" arrested.

A man has been described as "lucky" after the car he was driving went off the road and wrapped around a pole on Matapouri Rd on Saturday, just after 3pm.

Bridgette Thorne was working at the Matapouri Bay Store when she heard the crash.

"We heard screeching and a bang. Me and my partner ran over, we were first on scene. He (the driver) wasn't saying anything other than 'my head, my head' it was horrible," she said.

Police spokeswoman Sarah Kennett said the man was injured, however his exact injuries were unknown.

"He's lucky there was no passenger in the vehicle. If there had been I'd say they would be dead or paralysed," Ms Thorne said.

She said the driver of the car had returned to clean up the mess and apologise on Sunday.

A boy racer hooning on a dead-end street slammed his Nissan Skyline into two parked vehicles before the car they were in came to a rest on its side.

A Mazda MX two-door and a Honda CRV - belonging to Whangarei lawyer Kelly Ellis' son Jack and wife Kelly Ewing respectively - were at the receiving end of the boy racers' antics on Paranui Valley Rd at about 7.30pm on Saturday.

TRAIL OF DAMAGE: Matapouri residents heard a bang and looked outside to see this car wrapped around a pole on Saturday. Kelly Ellis with the two family vehicles damaged by a 30-year-old boy racer on Saturday. PHOTOS/JOHN STONE.

Ms Ellis reckons both vehicles are a write-off. The family had been watching TV on Saturday evening when they heard a howl followed by the noise of a bomb going off.

"Me and my son went outside and found a turbo-charged Nissan Skyline lying on its side and a couple of dazed and stupid people getting out of it one by one," she said.

She said drivers have hooned on Paranui Valley Rd in the past but the situation was not bad until last weekend. "Both cars were hit with such force, they got knocked on to the footpath, breaking the wheel and suspension of the Mazda and suspension of the Honda. If the vehicles that got hit were not parked there, the boy racers would have come on to our compound and maybe they would have been stopped by a totara tree or smashed into our kitchen."

Mrs Kennett confirmed officers attended the scene but could not find record of any charges being laid.

Meanwhile, A 17-year-old driving a stolen car smashed down a series of cycle trail gates before he was caught in a foot chase, police say.

Moerewa residents alerted police about 11am yesterday that someone was driving on the Twin Coast Cycle Trail/Pou Herenga Tai and crashing through reinforced gates designed to keep cars off the track.

Kawakawa police tried to cut the driver off at Station Rd, Moerewa, which intersects the trail. Constable Roger Dephoff said he just missed the car there so he tried again at Factory Lane beside the old timber mill.

He found the driver had just pulled off the trail and was parking under some trees. The teen fled on foot, along with his 14-year-old female associate, when he saw a police officer sprinting towards him. Mr Dephoff caught the pair after a chase of about 50 metres.

He was charged with unlawfully taking a motor vehicle, wilful damage and breaching bail. He was held in police custody overnight and was due to appear in the Kaikohe District Court today. The girl was referred to Youth Aid.