Charges laid after top Colombian diplomat injured in motorcycle crash

A 26-year-old man has been charged with careless driving after January's Tamaki Drive crash. Photo / Supplied

Driving charges have been laid after Colombia's top diplomat to New Zealand was seriously injured in a motorcycle crash along Auckland's Tamaki Drive.

Juan Carlos Cadena Silva, the Consul General at the Colombian Consulate in Auckland, was seriously injured after being thrown from his Harley-Davidson on to the busy waterfront road.

Police have now charged a 26-year-old Auckland man with operating a vehicle carelessly and causing injury over the January 20 crash.

Charges were filed against the man at Auckland District Court earlier this week, and he will reappear in Waitakere District Court next month.

Cadena Silva broke his right ankle and left wrist in the crash, and required surgery at Auckland City Hospital.

He is due to conclude his diplomatic post at the end of this year, after arriving in New Zealand in April 2013.

A witness said Consul General Juan Carlos Cadena Silva was lucky to be alive after the crash. Photo / Supplied

When speaking to the Herald from his hospital bed after the crash, Cadena Silva said he could barely recall the rush hour incident, which occurred on a Friday evening near Kelly Tarlton's aquarium.

"The only thing I remember is seeing this car crash into the car in front of me ... and then I woke up and had a couple of people asking me questions.

"I don't know if I was able to brake or what? So I guess I didn't."

A witness to the crash said he was surprised Cadena Silva survived, such was the force of the impact.

"[I don't know] how he wasn't killed..."

He said Cadena Silva's motorcycle careened into the side of his car, sending the diplomat flying through the air and over the top of the vehicle on to the road.

Cadena Silva, who was travelling to St Heliers to meet his wife and two children for ice cream, said he had ridden motorcycles since he was 13.