Drink charge over multiple smash

One of the vehicles involved in the crash at Maramarua. Picture / Michael Craig

A man has been charged with drink driving following a multiple car crash on Friday which left three people in hospital with serious injuries.

One woman remains in Auckland Hospital in a serious condition following the crash at 5.10pm on Friday on State Highway 2 at Maramarua, a notorious traffic black spot.

A man was taken to Auckland Hospital with multiple fractures and a third person is in Middlemore Hospital.

Eight other people were involved in the incident, including two children.

Police believe a west-bound BMW station wagon was overtaking a vehicle when it hit an oncoming Jeep Cherokee.

Sergeant Greg Dunn said the BMW was heading north towards Auckland and witnesses reported that the vehicle had been overtaking dangerously before the accident.

Mr Dunn said police believe the BMW driver ran from the scene.

He was found hiding in bushes by a police Eagle helicopter using heat sensing equipment.

Waikato police spokeswoman Kris McGehan said further charges were likely to be laid within the next two weeks as the inquiry progressed.

The owner of the BMW, Mat Peters, was injured in the accident.

However, he is understood not to have been driving the car at the time.

Mr Peters is an Auckland property developer who was due to get married to model and actor agency owner Shelley Taunt next month.

Her father, Tom Taunt, told the Herald yesterday that the pair were meant to be shifting out of their Parnell house this weekend.

Mr Taunt would not comment on speculation as to who was driving the car.

"I hardly know anything, I wish I did," Mr Taunt said.

Mr Peters' brother Jamie Peters, a multi-millionaire property developer with extensive business interests, was understood to be keeping vigil at his bedside.

The brothers are distant cousins of Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters.

The Sunday Star-Times reported the BMW driver was a former police officer, but the police are refusing to comment on his identity.

The section of State Highway 2 where the accident happened is undergoing roadworks and is badly marked and confusing, says traffic law expert Gary Gotlieb.

It happened along a part of the infamous stretch of state highway which has been the scene of many fatal accidents.

Mr Gotlieb, traffic law spokesman for the Auckland District Law Society, said he had driven along the same piece of road at Maramarua just a week ago.

"It is very badly marked.

"My wife and I were both confused as to where we were meant to be ... whether it was one lane or two, and whether [or not] we could overtake," Mr Gotlieb said.