Hit-and-run pedestrian 'appalled' at Drop n Fly

Photo / Thinkstock

The pedestrian at the centre of an attempted hit-and-run incident involving a valet driver at Auckland Airport says he is appalled at the way the company dealt with the ordeal.

Earlier this week, NZME. News Service revealed a valet driver who worked for parking company Drop n Fly had been accused of using a client's Mercedes-Benz to try to run down a pedestrian during an argument in the airport carpark.

Police investigated but said Drop n Fly director Avhikash Singh was evasive and unhelpful and as a result they could not identify the driver behind the attempted hit-and-run incident.

The pedestrian at the centre of the incident, who did not wish to be named, said until reading the news report earlier this week, he was still not aware of details of the company or the driver involved.

The man explained how he had an altercation with the car's driver in the airport car park last September.

He and his wife had just landed in Auckland and were in the car park walking towards their vehicle, he said.

"As we were approaching one of the main thoroughfares this vehicle, the Mercedes-Benz, crossed in front of us at a very excessive speed - especially for a car park.

"His window was down so we hollered out to slow down and he slammed on the brakes ... we exchanged a few words and he started driving off."

The man said the driver went towards the exit, before making a U-turn back towards him and his wife.

"He put the pedal down and aimed for myself and followed up aiming for my wife who was about 10 metres behind me at the time."

He said even though he moved as fast as he could to get away from the car, he feared he would get hit.

"I was probably lucky there was a parked car and he couldn't actually turn the wheel to hit me without hitting the parked car. He was still accelerating while I ran to get out of the way.

"If I was not able to run there is no way he would have been able to stop the car without hitting me because his foot was still on the gas when he was only a few metres away."

He said as soon as the driver took off, he took a photo of the car and immediately called police.

Drop n Fly director Avhikash Singh rejected claims he was unhelpful to police, and said he quickly passed on the driver's name and number as soon as he heard about what had happened.

"I gave them all the information I had. I couldn't do anything more than that."

He said he did not pay people who drove his customer's cars. Instead he did favours for many other people, and they helped him out in return.

He said he always checked his helpers had current drivers licences, but he did not always keep their contact details.

Mr Singh offered his apologies to the pedestrian involved in the incident, and said he would have apologised sooner had he had their contact details.

"I have not been given the contact details of the people involved. I have apologised to the client, I emailed and called him and said 'Hey, sorry that your car was involved and I wasn't aware of this'.

"Give me the name or the email or anything and I'll send my apologies, what is the harm in apologising?"

The pedestrian said it was "appalling" Mr Singh allowed helpers to handle customers' cars without having any record of who they were.

"If he had hit me and injured me really badly, or killed me, he [the driver] would be walking freely.

"I would never ever use that business or entrust my car with that business and I hope no one else would."

Mr Singh said in light of the incident he intended to keep better records of his helpers in the future.