{"id":576345,"date":"2026-08-21T23:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T23:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/576345\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T23:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T23:54:10","slug":"police-officer-critically-injured-while-deploying-road-spikes-to-stop-fleeing-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/576345\/","title":{"rendered":"Police officer critically injured while deploying road spikes to stop fleeing driver"},"content":{"rendered":"

The vehicle\u2019s two occupants, described by police as young people, were arrested.<\/p>\n

Central District Commander Superintendent Dion Bennett said a major investigation is now underway.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe serious crash unit has carried out a scene examination and a section of the road remains closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolice are working to understand the full circumstances of what occurred and notify relevant agencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis work will take time, and we will share information when we are in a position to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennett said support was being provided to the injured officers, their families and colleagues.<\/p>\n

No further details have been released about the officers\u2019 condition or the identities of those arrested.<\/p>\n

In 2008, Sergeant Derek Wootton was killed while deploying road spikes<\/a> north of Wellington. <\/p>\n

Wootton, 52, was working the night shift when a report was received of an alleged serious assault and carjacking.<\/p>\n

Officers located the vehicle near Porirua and a pursuit began. Wootton deployed road spikes in a suburban street in Titahi Bay in the early hours of the morning.<\/p>\n

\"SergeantSergeant Derek Wootton died on July 11, 2008, while laying road spikes in Titahi Bay to stop a fleeing driver. Photo \/ NZ Police<\/p>\n

The vehicle drove over the spikes but then struck Wootton, fatally injuring him. Despite efforts by fellow officers and ambulance staff, he died at the scene.<\/p>\n

A 32-year-old man later appeared in Porirua District Court<\/a> facing charges including dangerous driving, dangerous driving causing death, failing to stop after a motor accident, aggravated robbery, vehicle theft and kidnapping.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The vehicle\u2019s two occupants, described by police as young people, were arrested. Central District Commander Superintendent Dion Bennett…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,682,1239,11728,12939,47957,19552,15037,2241,10933,46564,3180,111,43,139,529,69,10932,6292,675,1314,43973,1324,20705,61,6845,6123],"class_list":["post-576345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-being","tag-condition","tag-critical","tag-critically","tag-deploying","tag-driver","tag-fleeing","tag-hospital","tag-injured","tag-laying","tag-near","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-north","tag-nz","tag-officer","tag-palmerston","tag-police","tag-road","tag-spikes","tag-stop","tag-struck","tag-to","tag-vehicle","tag-while"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576345","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=576345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}