Police say it is “by good fortune only” that a driver – suspected to be under the influence of a substance – did not seriously injure or kill someone when his van and trailer jackknifed in rural Auckland overnight.<\/p>\n
Officers responded to a report of a crash on Runciman Rd at around 12.43am on Monday.<\/p>\n
Counties Manukau South Area Prevention Manager, Inspector Matt Hoyes said a Mitsubishi van and trailer had jack-knifed and completely blocked the road.<\/p>\n
“When units attended the driver was asleep at the driver\u2019s wheel, and it was suspected he was under the influence of a substance.”<\/p>\n
Methamphetamine and other substances were allegedly located in the van, police said.<\/p>\n
Hoyes said the man was going to be taken to Pukekohe Police Station for a compulsory impairment test (CIT) but was taken to hospital to be assessed after becoming “increasingly incoherent”.<\/p>\n
“Police have since charged the 55-year-old man with driving and drugs offences after this morning\u2019s crash.”<\/p>\n
Hoyes said the incident “could have been worse” and that someone could have been seriously or fatally injured as a result of the crash.<\/p>\n
“The man\u2019s actions were reckless, and people need to realise that driving under the influence puts lives at risk.”<\/p>\n
The 55-year-old man was expected to appear in the Pukekohe District Court today charged with careless driving, possession of a precursor substance with intent, possession of methamphetamine and possession of a class A substance.<\/p>\n
He was also charged with refusing to supply blood.<\/p>\n
The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including Liam Lawson\u2019s best result, recognition for a Palestinian state, and the best view of today\u2019s partial solar eclipse. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police say it is “by good fortune only” that a driver – suspected to be under the influence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[51,67,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-35574","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-auckland","9":"tag-crime-and-justice","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35574","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=35574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}