A stolen truck burst into flames following a police chase through rural North Auckland, one man has been arrested.
Video / Ian Wishart / Trish Dee
An Auckland father of young twins is thanking his lucky stars they weren't killed after a truck involved in a police pursuit came hurtling towards them last night.
Shaun Peyman was driving back from visiting family in Helensville, with his twin 6-year-old son and daughter, when they turned a corner on Peak Rd and saw the oncoming truck.
"I saw the truck coming around the corner towards us and it looked like he was going really fast, lost it and started fish-tailing," he said.
"I tried to evaluate what was going on and quickly make a split second decision because in that situation you don't want to panic.
"I realised I had to take evasive action because he was still on our side of the road, so I had to pull over and straddle the road in the ditch."
Peyman said the truck then came "pretty close" to hitting their vehicle.
"In my 30 years of driving, it was the closest it has ever been. After that I just saw a trail of destruction of cars on the side of the road with wing mirrors smashed off."
Peyman counts his blessings that he and his children were left uninjured, and their vehicle wasn't damaged.
"We were quite lucky, otherwise we would have been killed," he said.
"I was thinking about it all evening, how close it was. I am surprised no one got killed."
A truck caught fire after leading police on a chase through north Auckland last night. Photo / Ian Wishart
He felt relief when he saw the video of the crashed truck, with news no one had been hurt, he said.
Meanwhile, Ian Wishart also told the Herald about his experience with the truck that appeared to be "playing chicken" with cars during the chase.
The truck came "barrelling up" behind him, Wishart said, flashing its lights and honking.
The truck was being driven at 100km/h and trying to get past, he said. He pulled to the side - but then "the scumbag drove into me hard enough to take off my mirror and door".
Another vehicle came up behind him, its hazard lights flashing. He later learned the vehicle had also been struck on the truck's rampage.
Both followed the car, with Wishart calling police at 5pm as he drove. He was still on the phone when a police car came screaming past in pursuit.
The truck was swerving back and forth across the road, tyres belching smoke as he skidded, Wishart said.
"When cars came toward him he would swerve into their path and drive them off the road. Every corner we went round you got the feeling we would come across a scene of carnage."
He characterised it as a "low-speed dangerous chase" as it was hard to drive faster than 70km/h on the windy road.
Wishart described seeing the truck swerve into the path of oncoming cars, and said it appeared the driver was "playing chicken".
"I was waiting for impact but luckily the cars avoided him by driving off the road into ditches," he said.
"He wasn't just fleeing police, he was out to wreak mayhem."
The chase proceeded through Riverhead, with police laying road spikes just after the township and that punctured the truck's front tyres.
The truck continued on its rims for another 8km at about 20km/h past Coatesville Village. Police were coming from the other direction when the driver tried to take a corner, lost traction and burst into flames as it came to a stop.
A police spokeswoman said officers began pursuing a truck on Old North Rd at 5.03pm that had been involved in two earlier collisions.
Police requested backup from the police Eagle helicopter and also deployed road spikes. The pursuit was abandoned due to the manner of driving, she said.
The Eagle stayed in pursuit of the vehicle, which eventually caught fire and stopped. The driver attempted to escape on foot.
A man, 24, was arrested and has been charged with unlawfully taking a motor vehicle, assault, reckless driving and failure to stop, police said.
