Police drive through late-night Waikato car meet carrying a man on the bonnet
Sunday, 14 March 2021
A police vehicle on the tail of a driver doing burnouts during a late-night Waikato car meet ended up driving through the crowd with someone on the bonnet.
Smoke from burnouts lingered in the air at Tauhei Rd, northwest of Morrinsville, when the patrol car arrived just before midnight on Saturday.
Police say illegal street racing is a big concern for people who live near where it happens, and they're aware of this incident.
A patrol car was damaged, but police won't say more while inquiries continue.
**READ MORE:
* Man who opened fire on boy racers near Hamilton revealed
* Late-night burnouts by boy racers have Blenheim residents 'burnt out'
* Man takes pot shot at boy racer after rural tranquility disturbed
**
Videos of the encounter, provided to Stuff, show a man being carried on the car's bonnet for several metres, and angry people in the group kicking the car and yelling about what is going on.
The patrol car had its lights on but no sirens, and didn't honk before driving through people, said one spectator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
A car had been doing burnouts for the gathering that is understood to have started in Te Rapa, Hamilton, and travelled in convoy to the countryside.
The skid car headed for Hamilton as the patrol car approached and slowed down to about 30 to 40kmh, the spectator said.
“He just rolled straight through,' he said.
'There would have been ample opportunity to stop the car and let [the crowd] disperse.”
Those at the gatherings acknowledge they are illegal, but no-one wants to put people in danger, he said.
Illegal street racing is a significant concern for communities where it happens, Waikato road policing manager Inspector Jeff Penno told Stuff, and that requires a police response.
After several recent incidents in Te Awamutu, police have formed a squad.
“Our preference is to prevent such activity but if our prevention message fails to work then the public can expect, and that fraternity can expect, enforcement to follow.”
People who live near Tauhei reported regular gatherings of anywhere from 20 to several hundred cars.
Tyres screech and pop and the roads are blocked, stopping people getting through, residents said.
Noise wakes people and children in the area, and tyres and beer bottles are left behind, they said.
One resident was worried fed-up farmers with shotguns might take the law into their own hands – car enthusiasts have already been shot at in a hotspot on the southern side of Hamilton.
In Tauhei on Saturday night, people were returning to their cars when the patrol car came through, a spectator said, though some “smart arses' may have been walking slowly.
However, a second anonymous witness said people were “stopping [police] from catching the fulla that was doing doughnuts, so he wouldn't lose his licence'.
Video shows car enthusiasts kicking and hitting the patrol car after the man ended up on the bonnet, and one person rips off the rear number plate.
'If the police car didn't ram people then the police car wouldn't have got attacked,” the second witness said.
There was no horn or siren to warn people, the first witness said.
“[Attacking the car] was done with the mentality of, oh my god, you're hitting people, stop.'
It's understood only one officer was in the vehicle, which drove off after getting through the crowd.
The man who’d been on the car bonnet was grazed and had a bleeding arm, but was otherwise okay, the first witness said.
They left the area after the incident.
In a statement, police confirmed a call to unauthorised street and drag racing and vehicles doing burnouts on a rural road near Morrinsville shortly before midnight on Saturday.
”A large congregation of vehicles” was blocking the road when police arrived, it said.
“A police vehicle suffered some external damage by people at the scene.”