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A woman who says she was repeatedly hit by a pickup truck at high speed on a Wellington highway says police dismissed the danger and did not treat the report seriously.
One woman says she was terrified of crashing when four men in a pickup truck laughed and repeatedly rammed her car as they traveled down the highway north of Wellington. Source: rnz.co.nz
Hermione McKeich says she was driving in a 100 km / h zone between Melling and Petone, north of the city of Wellington, when the terrifying experience occurred without warning.
She told RNZ’s David Reid that four men in a pickup truck laughed when they collided with her little Mazda, using her vehicle as a weapon against her.
“I was driving listening to music, I had just passed someone, so I was in the fast lane. I hadn’t moved out of the fast lane yet, but it wasn’t urgent that there were no other cars behind me.
“But then a few seconds later I looked in the rear view mirror and all of a sudden there was a huge truck so close that I couldn’t see its bumper … and I was pretty scared.
“They backtracked a bit, so I went to slow down so I could signal and get into the slow lane, because I assumed they were following me because they were upset that I was in the fast lane. back of my car. “
McKeich says that at first he thought the accident was an accident.
“Then they backed up and they accelerated and they did it again, then they did it again four times, and the fourth time they hit my car they didn’t back up, they accelerated.”
“So they were literally pushing my car down the highway, and I had absolutely no control of my car – we were going about 120 km / h and it was also pouring rain.
“I was afraid of hitting the side railing and tipping over or something like that, and there were other cars around me too, I was afraid of losing control of my car and dying, and killing other people on the freeway – it’s really scary.” .
She says the people in the truck following her were laughing.
“When they pushed me, I would scream … I was petrified and looked in my rear view mirror at what they were doing and they just laughed … they seemed to be enjoying the fact that they were scaring me. I really feared for my life.
“After they pushed my car down the freeway, they backed up, got into the slow lane and sped away.
“I don’t know what I was thinking I would do because they were four big men, they looked scary, but I was in shock and decided to chase them.
“I ended up on the phone with the police at the same time, on the speaker phone, and they told me that you should stop chasing them, that they could be very dangerous, that you should stop.
However, the police reaction after that has also moved her.
“I thought that due to the seriousness of what happened they would come to the scene immediately … but they only told me to go to the station and make a statement.
“I was hospitalized. I suffered a concussion, a neck strain, bruises on my chest and I also suffered shock.”
She says Lower Hutt Police Station officers appeared to downplay the incident, telling her that the van’s search was not traceable and ending the initial interview after five minutes.
“They said the only thing they can do is physically locate the car; until they can locate the car and locate the people who were driving it, they really won’t be able to do much. But I looked up I got stuck … and saw that I didn’t get it. stole or anything.
“I felt like I had been scared off, like I was just [treated it like] just another accidental thing that happens every day when people drive their cars. For me it is no different than someone who walks down the street and is attacked with an object: they were using their car to attack me. “
Since then, she has been contacted by a witness who could provide dash cam footage.
A police spokesman says investigations into the incident are ongoing and that police will speak with McKeich again in the coming days to seek more information and establish additional lines of investigation.
They say that if anyone has information about the incident they can contact the police at 105.
McKeich says that he has now received an apology from the police, but is afraid to drive again.
