serious crash in Levin<\/a> on Thursday night had earlier fled police.<\/p>\nInspector Ashley Gurney said an investigation had been launched following the two-vehicle crash that left three people injured – one critically.<\/p>\n
Gurney said one of the vehicles involved – a Holden Captiva – was being sought by police prior to the crash following a number of driving complaints.<\/p>\n
“At around 7.15pm, a police unit observed the vehicle on Queen Street in Levin, but when signalled to stop, the driver failed to do so,” Gurney said.<\/p>\n
“Police briefly pursued the vehicle but abandoned immediately due to the manner of driving.”<\/p>\n
Just five minutes later, Gurney said a member of the public flagged down another police car and told the officers about a crash on State Highway 57, near the intersection of Kimberley and Arapaepae South roads.<\/p>\n
“The driver that had failed to stop for police earlier had subsequently collided with a van, whose sole occupant received critical injuries and was airlifted to hospital.<\/p>\n
“The occupants of the fleeing vehicle also received injuries and were both taken to hospital in moderate condition.”<\/p>\n
Gurney said the crash scene was “challenging” with three injured people and two “extensively damaged vehicles”.<\/p>\n
“As part of the crash investigation, an examination of the scene and vehicles involved is being undertaken by the Central District Serious Crash Unit.<\/p>\n
“While the serious crash investigation is only in its early stages, I can confirm we are working to determine if alcohol was a factor in the crash.”<\/p>\n
Gurney said police wanted to hear from anyone who may have seen the Holden Captive driving south through Levin before the crash – and anyone with dashcam footage that could help the investigation.<\/p>\n
“If you can help, please contact police via 105 and quote file number 260101\/9865.”<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: RNZ \/ Nate McKinnon A vehicle involved in a serious crash in Levin on Thursday night had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-212366","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}