A couple driving from Swanson to Piha followed a car that crossed the centre line multiple times. Supplied by Alexa Robinson
A car that crossed the centre line at almost every corner from Swanson to Piha has been reported to police.
Motorist Alexa Robinson followed the car all the way to Piha about 2.30pm todayand said cars coming in the opposite direction had to swerve or slam on the brakes four or five times during the 24km trip. She believed it was a rental car and suspected the driver was a tourist.
"It was just quite scary," she said.
"Right from when we were leaving Swanson we noticed them cutting over the centre line a couple of times.
"The further we got along they were really cutting corners to the point where most of their car was on the other side of the road.
"Cars coming from the opposite direction actually had to slam on their brakes or swerve over to the left because the car was cutting into their lane."
The car, believed to be a rental car, crossed the centre line repeatedly on the Piha road today. Photo / Alexa Robinson
She said the car was not speeding, but crossed the centre line "at pretty much every corner" on the winding road to Piha. She videoed part of the trip, intending to show it to the car's occupants.
"When we got to Piha we turned off and they carried on. We thought we'd show them the video to show them what they were doing.
"We saw the car parked in Piha about 20 minutes afterwards, and waited around for an hour to be able to show them how bad their driving was and how dangerous they were to other drivers. However we never saw them."
She looked up the car's number plate on vehicle information website CarJam and it showed up as a rental car.
She reported the driving to police and a police spokeswoman told the Herald they were aware of the footage and would follow up as appropriate.
That wasn't the only example of dangerous driving this week.
Nelson Mail's Martin de Ruyter filmed another driver behaving similarly between Nelson and Blenheim on Monday.
He told Fairfax the rental car in front of him crossed the centre line almost every time he went around a right-hand bend.
de Ruyter provided the footage to police who issued the tourist with a ticket and educated him about the road rules in New Zealand.
Sergeant Barrie Greenall told Fairfax people who saw cars crossing the centre line were encouraged to video it because it was helpful in educating and correcting drivers.
