Local drivers can be just as bad as foreigners, says man after close call in car

Friday, 29 December 2017

Mike recorded this driving in Petone, Lower Hutt, saying it's not only tourists in the South Island endangering lives with reckless driving.

Local drivers are just as bad as foreigners, says a Lower Hutt man who narrowly avoided a head-on crash this week.

Hutt Valley resident Mike, who asked his surname to be withheld, was driving south over a short bridge along Hutt Rd in Petone when he saw a car coming straight at him down the 50kmph road at about 9am on December 27.

Mike flicked on the high-beams from his Mitsubishi RVR and prepared to stop as the oncoming car kept at him until darting back into the proper lane.

Dashcam footage shows oncoming traffic appears to be in both lanes along Hutt Rd in Petone on December 29.

'I just held the stick up going at him full beam. He changed his lane rather rapidly.

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'There was no way I was going to hit him but if I had another [car] behind me I would've got myself in-between them.'

The offending driver simply 'waved his arms as if to say, 'what'?'

Mike believed there was only the one person in the car, and that he had failed to get into the proper lane after backing out of a driveway.

Foreign drivers often copped a lot of flack for bad driving, particularly in the South Island, Mike said, but it was important to remember that New Zealanders could be just as bad.

'I suppose we highlight the mistakes of foreigners because they're an easy target. It's easy to blame a foreigner rather than make us out to be bad drivers.'

'Anybody that gets behind the wheel can go off the road.

'Everyone I teach to drive [family and friends] I just say, as a rule of thumb, treat every other driver on the road as an idiot… you've got no idea of what they're going to do.'

Mike said he was used to spotting idiot drivers on his dashcam.

He had narrowly avoided hitting a car that cut off his nine-metre house bus near a roundabout a few years ago.

'I had to mute that one because the language coming out of my throat wasn't fit for public consumption.'

A police spokesperson said the type of driving behaviour shown in the video was 'totally unacceptable and puts the safety of those involved, and the public at risk'.

Anyone who witnessed driving of concern was encouraged to call *555 immediately so police can make contact with the offending driver.