A 19-year-old appeared in court accused of carjacking a woman and her baby in West Auckland. Photo / file
The man accused of carjacking a woman and her baby while leading police on a 24km chase across Auckland has appeared in court today.
Tony Temoananui is alleged to have driven the wrong way up the motorway before ploughing into a ute in west Auckland.
The 19-year-old made a brief appearance at the Auckland District Court today.
He's facing six charges including robbery, reckless driving causing injury and other driving charges.
He was remanded in custody and will reappear in October.
Police allege Temoananui smashed through a fence in a stolen Honda Prelude in Maplesden Drive, Clendon, at 8.44am.
Police pursued him briefly but abandoned the chase after he turned on to busy Roscommon Rd.
The Eagle helicopter followed the car as it entered the Southwestern Motorway, drove off the Mahunga Rd on-ramp and drove "erratically" around Mangere Bridge. It then got back on the motorway before exiting on Hillsborough Rd.
"Eagle described the car as passing vehicles any which way he could, including on the left-hand side, and overtaking on double yellow lines," police said.
The driver continued to Kinross Rd and collided with a white Toyota Corolla, forcing it to stop.
Temoananui is alleged to have pulled the female driver out of her car. She just managed to get her 2-year-old daughter out before he is alleged to have sped off. Moments later he smashed into a ute.
Felix Birkbeck, 31, was driving home along Portage Rd in New Lynn when Temoananui allegedly crossed the centreline and headed straight for him.
"My first reaction was just to get the hell out of the way ... I saw that he was swerving right towards me. I just managed to pull out of the way and then he hit my front left corner," Mr Birkbeck said.
"He spun me 45 degrees and he spun 180 degrees. He got out in a bit of a flurry and I thought he was going to try to do a runner ... Then he just put his hands up.
Mr Birkbeck suffered whiplash but was more worried about being out of pocket. He owns Landcraft, a landscaping business, and the ute was his work vehicle.
"You don't realise how bad it is until you get out of it and you see pictures on the internet. It's frightening looking back on it," Mr Birkbeck said.
Mary Murray, who lives nearby, said the impact was massive.
"I heard a smash, crash, bang and nearly had heart failure. It happened so fast.
"The truck hit the white car and it spun around in a u-turn. It swung all the way around. It just smacked into the car."
The 19-year-old was found in a remote area in the hills of Upper Hutt.