Pukenui crash for IPCA

The Independent Police Complaints Authority will be investigating a collision between a police four-wheel-drive vehicle and a small sewage truck on State Highway 1 at Pukenui yesterday morning. The Serious Crash Unit was also dispatched from Whangarei to examine the scene.

Kaitaia's senior police officer, Senior Sergeant Geoff Ryan, said referral to the IPCA was "pretty standard procedure" in any crash involving a police vehicle.

Both drivers escaped without serious injury, despite the extensive damage done to their vehicles, although the truck driver was taken to Kaitaia Hospital by ambulance. The police officer was also checked for a knee injury that was not believed to be serious. Neither driver was carrying passengers.

The crash occurred outside the Houhora Big Game and Sports Fishing Club's complex, both vehicles coming to a halt on the eastern side of the highway. Traffic was reduced to one lane for some time while St John crews tended to the drivers, photographic and other evidence was collected and debris was cleared away.

Meanwhile a crash that left a Far North man soaked in petrol and trapped upside down in his car against an electric fence offered a stark reminder to slow down over the Christmas holidays according to police.

The smash occurred just after 11am yesterday when the driver of a Subaru Impreza lost control as he was heading towards Kerikeri on Kapiro Road. His car dropped into a shallow roadside ditch, careered about 50 metres along a grass verge and demolished a wooden fence before apparently becoming airborne. It grazed the top of a row of large rocks, snapped several small trees and cleared a fence before coming to rest on its roof in the corner of a paddock.

A passenger, understood to be the driver's daughter, was unhurt but the driver himself was trapped in the wreckage.

His large size, and the fact that petrol was leaking over him, complicated the job of the Kerikeri Fire Brigade volunteers as they worked to cut him free. A neighbour turned off power to the property so the electric fence would not spark a fire.

The driver, who was seen to be wearing an ankle bracelet of the type issued to those serving home detention, emerged bloodied but apparently suffering only minor head injuries. He was taken by St John Ambulance to Bay of Islands Hospital.

Constable Murray Wickliffe said speed was thought to be a factor in the crash, adding that it was a timely reminder for motorists to slow down and take care on the roads.

"People have to think about their families and getting home safely for Christmas," he said.

A young woman riding a horse on the grass verge nearby was also fortunate that her horse was not spooked by the crash, Constable Wickliffe saying drivers had to slow down when passing horses, even when they were well off the road.

The property owner is understood to have put a row of large rocks in place after a drunk driver demolished part of the fence about two years ago.

Yesterday's accident demolished the other part of the fence.