Man charged with drink driving after Maramarua crash

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 blackspot.

Also hospitalised were a man, taken to Auckland Hospital with multiple fractures, and a third person, who is in Middlemore Hospital with unknown injuries.

Waikato Police spokeswoman Kris McGehan said the drink driving charge was laid yesterday, and that further charges were likely to be laid within the next two weeks as inquiries progressed.

Sergeant Greg Dunn said the crash occurred when the male driver of a westbound BMW crossed the centre line and tried to pass another vehicle.

The BMW hit an eastbound car, and in the ensuing melee three other cars, one of which was carrying a trailer, were involved.

Mr Dunn said the BMW driver ran from the scene. He was found hiding in bushes by a police eagle helicopter using heat sensing equipment.

The Sunday Star-Times today reported the BMW driver was a former police officer.

Witnesses said the BMW had been dangerously overtaking before the accident, Mr Dunn said.

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

The Herald on Sunday reported that one of the hospitalised men, a passenger in the BMW, was Auckland property developer Mathew Peters, brother of multimillionaire property developer Jamie Peters and a relative of Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters.

The stretch of SH2 from Mangatawhiri to Maramarua is known as the "unforgiving highway" because of the large number of fatal crashes. It is often busy at weekends with a number of Auckland drivers heading towards Coromandel Peninsula.

Waikato road policing manager Leo Tooman said a large stretch of the road would have two extra lanes added from Queen's Birthday weekend next month but that they would have been unlikely to have prevented this crash.

- NZPA