Motorist describes narrowly avoiding head-on crash in three-vehicle wrong-way Waikato motorway accident

A person was arrested after driving on the wrong side of the Waikato Expressway (SH1), causing a three-vehicle crash then pulling an about-turn and fleeing the scene on August 4. Photo / File

A motorist who narrowly avoided a head-on collision on the Waikato Expressway with a wrong-way driver says she is now paranoid about driving.

Tegan Van den Broek and her friend were on the way to Tauranga from Auckland, driving on the southbound lane near Hampton Downs, when she saw a vehicle heading north in the southbound lane driving straight towards them.

“We see the car in front of us brake and swerve and all of a sudden, we see this car driving straight toward us. It’s so surreal, we braked and luckily there was no one in the left lane so we swerved into it,” Broek told the Waikato Herald.

Van den Broek said she looked behind to see that other cars weren’t so lucky and they had nose-to-tailed.

“We pulled over shaking with adrenaline and immediately called 111 and told them what happened, by this time I had absolutely no idea where the [car] had gone... I was terrified if they had continued driving, and how much carnage there could have been.”

Tegan Van den Broek has been left feeling paranoid after a vehicle drove straight towards her on SH1, Waikato Expressway.

Broek said the near-miss had changed her life and probably not for the better.

“I was a very confident driver before this incident... now I worry that I will find myself in that situation again in every car I drive past.

“When it happened I was shaking from the adrenaline, then you start playing out different scenarios like what if there was someone in the other lane and we had nowhere to go.

“Your brain goes into overdrive and you start thinking, imagine if you had looked down to do something and took your eyes off the road for a second, it would have been a completely different ending.

“It’s really made me feel paranoid about every car driving towards me now.”

A police spokesperson said they were notified of a vehicle driving north in the southbound lane at about 2.40pm.

A person has since been arrested.

Police allege the motorist was driving on the wrong side of the Waikato Expressway (SH1), caused a three-vehicle crash and then turned around and fled the scene.

No injuries were reported.

“The vehicle was later observed by police travelling north towards Auckland. The vehicle came to a stop after police activated red and blue lights, and the driver was taken into custody.”

Police confirmed that a 42-year-old man was charged with dangerous driving and failing to stop, and was due to appear in Huntly District Court on Tuesday.

Fire and Emergency attended the scene and confirmed no persons were trapped or injured in the crash.

Malisha Kumar is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined the Waikato Herald in 2023 after working for Radio 1XX in Whakatāne.