No police action on 'maniac' driver

A motorist who rang police to say she was following a man "driving like a maniac" was told to hang up but call back on 111 if he crashed.

Lisa Young rang the *555 police number from near Thames when she saw the car in front of her driving erratically and repeatedly swerving on to the other side of the road.

Ms Young - who was on her way to Auckland - told police the man was driving as though he was drunk and she was worried he would crash into a car coming the other way.

She was initially told the driver would be intercepted, but there was no sign of police when she reached Maramarua, and she was told there were no units between Thames and Auckland.

After about half an hour, she was told to hang up and ring 111 if he crashed. She rang *555 a second time when they got to the Southern Motorway near Auckland but was told there were still no police units available.

"This guy was all over the road, crossing on to the wrong side numerous times, suddenly braking, driving at 55 to 60 km/h in a 100 km/h zone and driving very erratically," she said of last Saturday night's incident.

"There is no way this guy should have been allowed to get from Thames to Auckland in the state he was in without being intercepted by police.

"It is unacceptable to ring and to be told only there are no police available and to hang up and ring back if he crashes. Why should it take the loss of an innocent life to get a response from the police?"

A spokeswoman for the police northern communications centre said two highway patrol units were usually on duty on the stretch of road, but at the time of Ms Young's calls both were needed to deal with an arrest.

She said *555 numbers went on to the general queue for callers to the communications centre and were outweighed by priority-one calls.

She said it was a matter of prioritising calls, and police from surrounding areas were all tied up at other events.

"That is the situation in a rural area. Rural units were all at other events and not available," she said.

"But she was a very responsible citizen for doing that.

"We wouldn't want her to be discouraged from doing it again."

Ms Young said the high death toll on the stretch of road near Maramarua was well known and she couldn't believe the police had nobody covering during a public holiday weekend.

"This was a Saturday night on a long weekend and there was a lot of traffic on the roads.

"It is unacceptable that there were no police cars on the roads between Thames and Auckland during this period of time and unacceptable that other lives were put at risk that night.

"It's the blackest spot on the road in New Zealand."

Ms Young said she was told to follow the man when he left the motorway and drove into the McDonald's carpark on the Bombay Hills.

After a few minutes, she was told to hang up because there were still no police available, and she left the carpark.

Police spokeswoman Kris McGehan said police did roster more staff on the roads during holiday periods.

"But if those staff are attending other jobs, they may not be available to respond to certain incidents."