Punch ruins officer's night at the movies

Neil Warren

An off-duty police officer has been punched in the face while trying to stop an allegedly drunk driver from getting back into a car he had just crashed on a busy highway.

Senior Constable Neil Warren was driving home from the movies at 9.30pm on Wednesday night when he saw a stationwagon crash into a road island in Cambridge and then take off again.

The Te Awamutu officer did not have a cellphone and was unable to call the police so he followed the stationwagon himself, fearing there could be a serious accident if the man continued driving the way he was.

"He headed on to State Highway 1 and was all over the road, swerving from one side to the other. I thought, this isn't going to take long before he prangs."

The stationwagon then spun out of control after hitting the side of the road and came to rest with the front half sitting sideways across the southbound lane.

As members of the public called the police Mr Warren approached the driver, who appeared to be under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

He was trying to get his car started again.

"Quite a bit of the car had fallen off by that stage. The back bumper was off and the car was reasonably damaged so I went up to him and said, 'you can't drive any more. You are too out of it, you can't drive'."

As he tried to take the keys from the ignition the driver became more aggressive.

"He was in and out of the car like a jack-in-the-box and walking towards me and telling me to ... off.

"I said 'I'm an off-duty police officer and the police are coming. You are going to end up being one of those stories you see on the front page of the newspaper if you drive off'.

"He got quite aggressive once he realised I wasn't going to leave him alone and punched me in the face."

Concerned for his own safety, Mr Warren backed off and the driver took off in his damaged car.

Mr Warren followed him with his hazard lights on to warn oncoming motorists.

"Straight away he was swerving all over the road. Oncoming cars were flicking at him with their lights."

At one stage Mr Warren said the man drove up on the kerb, causing sparks to fly from the wheels of his car as they grated along the concrete.

Soon after police, responding to the initial crash call from motorists, intercepted the driver and managed to stop him.

During the arrest a second police officer received a finger injury while trying to handcuff the struggling man.

Mr Warren said the man's driving was the worst he had seen in his 21 years as a police officer.

Cambridge Sergeant Gordon Grantham praised Mr Warren's actions, saying it was unusual for an off-duty officer to become so involved in a driving matter.

An off-duty officer would normally follow the vehicle or call it in, as it was safer than approaching a driver alone.

"But the driving was so serious, particularly when [the driver] crashed, [Mr Warren] had to do something," Mr Grantham said.

"He did a good thing in trying to prevent this guy from getting back on to the road.

"He is one person, out of uniform, in his own private car, on the side of the road and it was very dark."

* A 39-year-old driver was remanded in custody without plea after appearing in the Hamilton District Court yesterday charged with drink-driving, common assault, assaulting a police officer and dangerous driving.