Police are looking for a man who was spotted riding car bonnets while the vehicles drove along the Hawke’s Bay Expressway.
A spokeswoman for police said they received numerous reports a man was hailing vehicles to slow down and was then jumping on their bonnets about 3.30pm on Saturday.
The man fled on foot before police arrived and they are trying to find him, the spokeswoman said.
As of Sunday afternoon, police had not located the man.
A photograph of the incident shared with the Herald shows the man clinging on to a car as it drives along.
The photographer, Kathryn Green, said she was driving along when she saw the incident in the oncoming lane.
The car the man was on was travelling slowly, Green said, and there was a car in front of it that she believed was purposefully making it go slow.
Green shared the photograph on social media and it elicited a strong reaction from people dismayed at the man’s behaviour.
“Stupidity at its best,” one social media user said.
“This is beyond dangerous,” another said.
One woman noted: “They could have caused an accident.”
Others speculated whether the man was under the influence of drugs and some saw humour in the situation, but all concurred it was extremely reckless behaviour.
One social media user claimed he saw the man fleeing police: “He ended up jumping my back fence with police dogs tracking his scent.”
Another man said the incident brought traffic to a standstill.
A man known to the victim has been charged with assault.