Constable threw his baton at windscreen

Press, 9 January 1986, Page 4

Constable threw his baton at windscreen

PA Auckland Constable Trevor Klink last evening described the second of two brushes with death for him and his partner, Constable Chock McGrath, during a highspeed chase through West Auckland yesterday. “The guy was grinning,” said Constable Klink, until recently a recruit. “He drove right across the road straight for us. I had to throw my baton straight through his windscreen to stop him...” Minutes before he smashed his baton into the utility vehicle hurtling towards them on Exhibition Drive in the Waitakeres, the two constables had been rammed in their patrol car and almost pushed over a 30-metre cliff.

The incidents happened during a chase which started with an alleged surfboard theft at Piha Beach and ended in a four-vehicle collision after the fleeing red utility drove the wrong way/ up the North-western Motorway.

The two Henderson constables were sent to intercept the Toyota utility,

carrying five youths, as it drove up Scenic Drive. They lost the utility, tracked its tyre marks and found it hidden in a bush right-of-way on Exhibition Drive. As the policemen pulled up to arrest the occupants, the vehicle thundered into the side of the Holden Commodore patrol car — pushing it about five metres towards a 30-metre cliff.

“I thought we were going over,” said Constable McGrath last evening. “The car was sitting right on the edge. We ended up with the left front wheel dangling off the top.” The utility used its bull bars to push the police car and reversed to have a second ram. Constable Klink, who was on the side nearer the cliff, climbed out of the sliding car and ran to confront the occupants of the utility. He tried to grab one of the youths. “They wound the window up, but they had left the door unlocked,” said Constable Klink, aged 29. “I tried to pull one of them out and I was flung down a bank as they drove off. Luckily there was

enough bush to break the faU.

“The fact that I got out and came at them put them off the second go. They knew they had stuffed us, but they had to get away.” Constable McGrath was able to get out of the car but the utility had driven off. The policemen rang for help from a nearby house ana returned to the road.

The utility then reappeared around a corner and headed for the two constables.

Constable McGrath, aged 30, said: “They just aimed straight at us. They were within three or four metres when my partner threw the baton at them.”

Both constables agreed they were close to serious injury. After the baton smashed the windscreen and the constables had dived for cover the utility raced off along Scenic Drive again. It led pursuing police patrols through Titirangi, Kelston, and down the Great North Road near Avondale before driving straight up the off-ramp of the Northwestern Motorway at

Waterview and into oncoming traffic. The action caused a collision involving two trucks and a van.

One person from one of the three vehicles travelling in the normal direction was taken to Auckland Hospital with minor injuries. Pursuing police cars swooped on the scene and arrested three youths. Two others were found nearby soon after the 4.15 pm smash.

They will appear in the District Court at Henderson this morning. Two will face a charge of aggravated robbery in Northead, four will be charged with unlawfully taking a car, and one will face several driving charges. A Henderson police spokesman said the aggravated robbery charge was not related to events yesterday. . He said the utility was allegedly taken from Northland.

The police last evening were battling to work out what he called the myriad of charges resulting from the car chase and smash.