Crashed car ‘not chased’

Press, 2 September 1981, Page 2

Crashed car ‘not chased’

PA Auckland The Mark IV Zephyr car that crashed in Newton, Auckland, late on Sunday evening, killing four and seriously injuring a fifth, was not being chased by a traffic patrol, said a senior traffic officer yesterday. Chief Inspector Vernon Dawson, of the Auckland City Council traffic department, said yesterday that persistent . reports of this were “absolute rubbish.” He said a traffic officer had been standing beside his motor-cycle in Winchester Street about 10 p.m. when he heard the car speeding down Newton Road, passing him in excess of 120 km/h. * After the car sped towards the intersection of Newton, Great North, Ponsonby, and Karangahape roads the officer mounted his motorcycle and followed.

Mr Dawson said the officer arrived to find the car’s wreckage strewn over the intersection after it had crashed into a tree. The sole survivor of the accident, Burnel Matua Maihi, aged 18 of Mount Eden, was yesterday still seriously ill in Auckland Hospital’s critical-care unit. Mr Maihi is Believed to have suffered multiple fractures, chest injuries, and concussion. The Auckland police were yesterday continuing inquiries in connection witj inquests into the deaths of the four young people killed. Anyone who saw the accident has been asked to get in touch with the Auckland Central Police Station’s inquiry office. The police have not yet established who was driving the car.