Focus Live Earlier: Serious crash blocking all lanes south on Auckland's Southern Motorway
A man faces a raft of serious charges after yesterday's horror wrong-way crash on Auckland's Southern Motorway.
The motorway was closed for two hours on Thursday morning after a blue stolen car travelling on the wrong side of the road smashed into an innocent motorist near Highbrook.
Four people were injured in the head-on collision.
The alleged offending driver received moderate injuries in the crash and was released from hospital this afternoon.
Detective Senior Sergeant Albie Alexander said the 40-year-old man was in police custody faced two charges relating to the incident, and four others including assault, wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and threatens to kill in following an unrelated incident on Wednesday.
The woman, who did not want to be named, was driving in the southbound lane of the Southern Motorway from Mt Wellington heading toward Takanini at the time of the head-on crash.
"I didn't see the blue car right until the crash and just thought with my 3-month-old in the back how was I going to avoid it without someone crashing into the back of me.
"It was pretty horrific to see but I was quite calm and didn't slam on my brakes, I slowed and went as wide as I could around it."
The woman stopped 200m along the motorway and pulled over as police officers from cars in the northbound lane jumped the barrier.
A car following the woman parked in the lane to block traffic and "I assume, to protect the crash site".
"I was amazed how fast the police were there - it was immediately after the crash."
A man faces several charges after yesterday's crash on Auckland's Southern Motorway. Photo / Debbie Bayes
Realising there was no way she could assist anyone involved, the woman took a photo and left the scene.
"I drove up the motorway and within a few minutes, there were four more police cars and two fire engines."
Other members of the public who witnessed the car driving the wrong way on the Auckland motorway said they believed police vehicles were in pursuit.
The information is in contrast to what Police said yesterday - that there were no police cars following the car directly and it was only being pursued by the Eagle helicopter overhead.
Inspector Cornell Klussein said the Police Eagle helicopter had been following a car just before the crash about 10am.
"The person in the car was wanted for an unrelated serious crime. He started driving at high speed through roads like Te Irirangi Drive and around the Flat Bush area," he said.
"During this time, Eagle was following. We didn't have any police cars pursuing him directly. After a while, he entered the motorway going the wrong way at Highbrook."
Another police spokesman said police were not in pursuit but were several hundreds of metres back in the Highbrook Dr area preparing to lay road spikes.
"Police were nearby in the area in anticipation of the offender possibly dumping their vehicle and decamping on foot.
"This is a standard tactic by police when dealing with these types of situations."
Police said lights and sirens were not used before the crash.
A truck driver who was coming off the motorway via the Highbrook off-ramp told the Herald yesterday he got a shock when he saw the blue car heading towards him.
"The idiot was going down the wrong way of the motorway. He just came flying past on the slow lane - but the wrong way. It was looking like he was trying to find a way to get off.
"I thought: 'Oh here we go'.
"It just exploded. There was this massive explosion when he hit the other car head-on. It wasn't good to see.''
Meanwhile, police have launched an internal investigation after police footage showing the sickening head-on crash was leaked.
