{"id":579242,"date":"2026-08-24T22:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T22:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/579242\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T22:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T22:46:10","slug":"dame-therese-walsh-sets-up-givealittle-for-critically-injured-police-officer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/579242\/","title":{"rendered":"Dame Therese Walsh sets up Givealittle for critically injured police officer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The constable remains in the intensive care unit in Wellington Hospital<\/a> after being critically injured while laying road spikes in the early hours of Saturday. Two teens, 14 and 15 years old, have been charged over the incident.<\/p>\n

Walsh was a wing patron for police in late 2023, and had become \u201cquite close\u201d to the recruits during that time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, \u2018oh gosh, I hope it\u2019s not one of my recruits,\u2019 and then I realised it wasn\u2019t but then I thought \u2018I don\u2019t want anyone to be in that situation\u2019,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese guys, they go out and risk their lives for us, keeping us safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

She had joined in some of the training with the recruits when she was wing patron, and said the situations they dealt with were \u201creally tough\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe police officers were struck on Kairanga Bunnythorpe Rd just outside Palmerston North early Saturday morning. Image \/ Google Maps<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a desk job person really, I chair boards and things like that and I never have to put myself in that sort of danger, you know? So I just think we have to be really clear to support those that are helping us out in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walsh said she only started the Givealittle page yesterday but was pleased at the \u201creally phenomenal response\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe police do a great wraparound job with their injured officers but, you know, there\u2019s always a whole lot of unintended expenses in these situations and so providing some support is really important. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just feel really strongly about it and I\u2019m hoping to get even more people involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

The page has raised at least $8000 at the time of updating this article.<\/p>\n

According to police, the officer had been deploying road spikes on Kairanga Bunnythorpe Rd about 2am on Saturday when a car carrying two youths crashed into the police car he was standing behind, sending him flying several metres into another vehicle.<\/p>\n

He was airlifted to Wellington Hospital in a critical condition, while a second officer was treated for minor injuries.<\/p>\n

The teens were arrested and charged with a raft of offences, with the older of the two facing a charge of reckless driving causing injury.<\/p>\n

Central District Commander Superintendent Dion Bennett earlier described the officer as a \u201cgreat family man\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn his mum\u2019s words, he\u2019s a good bloke \u2013 and we think so too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no shortage of love and support pouring in for him; his family are by his side and staying incredibly strong for him, and we\u2019re also doing everything we can to support them as they navigate this awful situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police said the investigation into the crash is ongoing; however, the alleged driver, the older of the two teenagers, now faces charges relating to theft, failing to stop, dangerous driving and reckless driving causing injury.<\/p>\n

\"CentralCentral District Commander Superintendent Dion Bennett said police were extremely grateful the outcome wasn’t worse when two officers were struck by a stolen vehicle after laying road spikes near Palmerston North.<\/p>\n

The second teenager has been charged with unlawfully getting into a motor vehicle.<\/p>\n

Both are due to appear in the Youth Court on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Police said the teenagers had fled after failing to stop for officers on Amberley Ave, but police were not pursuing them when they later encountered the road spikes.<\/p>\n

The vehicle swerved to avoid the spikes, struck the police car and then hit the two officers.<\/p>\n

The car involved appeared to be stolen but Bennett said he did not know where from.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had discovered a stolen vehicle and police followed the stolen vehicle initially. As that vehicle sped away, police withdrew from that pursuit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Independent Police Conduct Authority has been notified, as is standard in such circumstances.<\/p>\n

Police Association president Steve Watt said his organisation had contacted the police welfare section and, alongside police, would provide wraparound support for the officer and his family.<\/p>\n

The incident again highlighted the \u201cunpredictable and dangerous nature of policing\u201d, Watt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a traumatic event that cuts deep for our whole membership … it really resonates with everyone and our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and to our member involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice, and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 12 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The constable remains in the intensive care unit in Wellington Hospital after being critically injured while laying road…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,682,138,12939,2947,543,2109,18791,15037,2082,49475,10933,13489,101,424,10509,111,43,139,69,10932,28630,675,6791,1973,4736,20705,47066,285360,810,52690,4741],"class_list":["post-579242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-being","tag-business","tag-critically","tag-dame","tag-driven","tag-family","tag-fighting","tag-fleeing","tag-for","tag-givealittle","tag-injured","tag-leader","tag-left","tag-life","tag-manawat","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-officer","tag-page","tag-police","tag-prominent","tag-sets","tag-stolen","tag-struck","tag-teenagers","tag-therese","tag-up","tag-walsh","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579242","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=579242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}