Inexperienced ‘girl boy racer’ careers into car

An innocent driver’s car was struck, allegedly by an inexperienced, 21-year-old Learner driver, ‘girl racer’ on Invercargill’s Bay Road on Sunday evening (1 June), just days after last Friday’s major boy racer incident in Levin, which left Police and bystanders injured, one woman seriously.

Senior Sergeant Mel Robertson says the road was wet and the 21-year-old female Learner driver boy racing another car was believed to be travelling at 100km/hr in a 50km zone where the member of the public’s car was hit.

The driver of the car she hit was left with minor injuries requiring medical attention.

A passenger in the victim’s vehicle was assessed by St John’s and transferred to Southland Hospital.

“This young woman was an inexperienced Learner driver travelling at excessive speed and she’s misjudged the conditions and slid on the wet road colliding with the victim’s car,” Robertson says.

Police investigations are continuing, and charges are likely pending.

She assures Southern Police will not be putting up with boy racer activity in their patch, the significant boy racer activity in Levin in which Police were pelted and members of the public injured only highlighting the need for a hard line on this.

“We take a zero-tolerance approach to boy racer behaviour,” she says.

Crash brings power pole and live lines down – Tragedy narrowly averted

A multiple tragedy was narrowly averted when a car attempting to overtake another car turning right clipped that car while trying to avoid an accident.

It then crashed into a power pole about 6.30pm on State Highway 1, near Longbush.

“The driver managed to extract himself from the vehicle and just as he did the power pole came down on his car,” Roberston says.

The power lines then came tumbling down onto an awaiting St John Ambulance about to attend to him, rendering the officers inside both powerless and trapped in their vehicle.

PowerNet was called to isolate the wires and make the site safe.

The driver, who’d sustained minor injuries, was then attended to by the ambulance staff.

Alleged Drink Driver Clock at 178km/hr

Police were extremely concerned to have clocked an alleged drink driver speeding at 178km/hr in a 100km/hr zone at East Road on the outskirts of Invercargill at 9pm last Friday night (31 May).

The man was charged with driving with an excess breath alcohol level, third or subsequent, driving at a dangerous speed and driving while forbidden.

He will appear in the Invercargill District Court on 27 June.

Dangerous speedster clocked at 150km/hr – Devil’s Staircase

An off-duty officer was also able to dob in a speeding driver clocked at 150km/hr because he was late for his Milford boat cruise on King’s Birthday (Monday, 2 June) morning.

The 31-year-old man was allegedly seen overtaking multiple vehicles on double yellow lines coming off the south end of Devil’s Staircase.

The off-duty officer alerted an on-duty officer who managed to locate the vehicle allegedly locked at 150km/hr in a 100km/hr zone just south of Garston.

The driver had his licence suspended and was issued an infringement notice for failure to comply with yellow lines and speeding.

“His excuse was that he was running late to catch a tourist boat trip to Milford,” Robertson says.

“Police and Milford tourism operators are trying to urge people to plan their trip, know how long it takes and know the current road conditions, then plan accordingly,” she says.

“It’s simply unacceptable to put others at risk like that.”

No bull!

Only in Southland….

Invercargill Police and some South Invercargill Elles Road residents got an “incredi-bull” surprise on Sunday morning after a bull turned up in the driveway of a residential Elles Road home, refusing to budge.

Police high-tailed it down there to assist, blocking the driveway access with their patrol car until Invercargill City Council Animal Control arrived.

Senior Sergeant Mel Robertson says between them they managed to round the bull along the street to nearby Ball Street Reserve, keeping it off busy Elles Road.

“The contractor was just ringing for a horse float when the bull fortunately jumped into a neighbouring paddock by the reserve,” Roberston says.

However, there were horses in the paddock, so they herded it into another paddock.

Thinking the stray bull was now safely secured they left, to try and locate the owner.

However, the bull was still on the mooooove!

Police received a report again on Monday morning to say it had again escaped confinement and trotted off down Elles Road to turn up at another house.

Once again, Police arrived with Animal Control, this time a horse float in tow, and the large cattle beast was eventually herded into custody.

Entertaining for all involved, but as far as this offender was concerned custody was a whole lot of bull.

Robertson was unsure how far the bull had wandered after running away from home.

“It had been a weekend of very strong winds so potentially fences may have been damaged but it was a pretty unique occurrence to see a bull down in South City Invercargill.”