Party mob attacks driver after boy hit

By PATRICK GOWER

A 44-year-old man who accidentally drove into a teenage boy was attacked by a mob of party gatecrashers who had already turned a birthday celebration into a brawl.

The force of the crash threw the boy through the air and into the path of another car, whose driver ran him over, and then drove off.

The first driver stopped to help the boy. The mob then attacked - punching him, kicking him and smashing a bottle over his head. His car was stolen during the beating.

"I thought I was going to die. Five more minutes and I could have," he told the Herald yesterday.

The boy he hit was among up to 200 teenagers who had piled on to tree-lined Asquith Ave in Mt Albert on Saturday night after an Avondale schoolgirl's parent closed down a birthday party when a fight broke out on their front doorstep.

He was last night in a stable condition in the critical care unit at Auckland hospital.

One party-goer came to his aid and tried to fight off the mob, but was dragged away so the beating could continue.

The man was saved by the police, responding at 10pm to calls from the host's parents and neighbours concerned by the series of fights that had broken out in the street after the party ended half-an-hour before.

Police are hunting for the driver who failed to stop, as well as the other driver's attackers.

The attacked driver, a part-time supermarket worker who immigrated from mainland China three years ago, was discharged from hospital with a large head gash and severe bruising.

He said he rarely went out alone at night and was driving carefully through the light rain.

He remembered only hitting the boy then cowering on the ground with his head in his hands to protect himself. "I didn't see [the crash victim]. Then suddenly there were so many people I could not do anything and I just hoped it would stop."

Police said the man "did the right thing" by stopping, and have called on the other driver to come forward.

They did not know what caused the fights, but said two groups were challenging each other.

It is understood there was a hardcore group of troublemakers spoiling for a fight who have created similar problems at other parties recently.

Two other parties were being held within walking distance and crowds from them started milling together on Asquith Ave.

A neighbour said he was watching the Bledisloe Cup rugby test when he looked out the window and saw the fighting.

"I called the police and said, 'there's a riot out on the street'."

He heard a loud crash when the teenager was hit by the grey Toyota Vista car as it travelled towards the city. The boy was then thrown into a vehicle travelling back towards Mt Albert.

"I heard them yell 'get him' and the sound of running," said the neighbour.

A 15-year-old Mt Albert Grammar School student said he arrived at the party just before the accident and saw three fights, including one that left a boy with a bloodied face.

He described the crowd as "hard-out gangsters".

The girl who threw the party and her Yugoslav immigrant parents, who do not want to be named, were at a loss yesterday to explain how their party attracted unwanted guests.

"I don't know who they were or why they came," the girl told the Herald. "I don't really know what they were fighting over - it was stuff like, 'are you looking at my girlfriend, bro?' "

Her parents stopped the party when the fight broke out on their front door step.

The father said they wanted to put the fallout from the party behind them and did not blame their daughter.

"After the first fight, I said, 'that's enough' and stopped the party. What more can you do?"