Crimeline
Tragedy narrowly avoided - 144km/hr leaving Cardrona Village
Police say tragedy was only avoided by “luck and a small distance” after they allegedly clocked a vehicle at 144km/hr in an 80km/hr zone leaving Cardrona Village on the opposite side of the road at the weekend.
Sergeant Dylan Hannah-Jones says just 10 minutes prior Police had stopped a motorcyclist in a group travelling in the opposite direction, who was allegedly clocked at 129km/hr.
It was “a recipe for tragedy only separated by luck and a small distance,” Hannah-Jones says.
The vehicle driver’s licence was suspended for 28 days, their vehicle impounded and they were summonsed to court for what Hannah-Jones described as an alleged “dangerous passing manoeuvre at incredibly high speed”. “It highlights the risk that combined speed and poor decision making can play in a crash.”
It was a very busy long weekend on the roads with hordes of vehicles and motorcycles travelling to and from Invercargill’s Burt Munro Challenge. Most were behaving, but several speeding motorcyclists were ticketed, some allegedly clocked at over 130km/hr through a very busy Crown Range, Hannah-Jones says.
On two separate occasions, Police stopped four people riding on the door sills of vehicles while under the influence of alcohol - one in front of an unmarked Police vehicle on the Crown Range, and another photographed by a member of the public stopped near Fairlight. These passengers were fined and educated.
Police conducted seven breath testing checkpoints, nearly 1200 breath tests, attended a number of crashes and issued over 100 infringements.
Woman allegedly assaulted in bar
A 36-year-old Central Otago man has been charged with male assaults female and resisting Police after an incident in a local bar at 1.20am on Saturday, 7 February. Constable Amanda Shute says the man had allegedly tried to get into an occupied bathroom when the female victim tried to intervene. The offender then allegedly grabbed her wrist and began twisting and squeezing it, holding onto it and pushing her shoulder. Multiple security staff were needed to free the victim as the offender allegedly resisted them and Police when they arrived. He was remanded on bail to reappear on Monday, 16 February.
Six weeks’ prison
A 56-year-old Christchurch man was sentenced to six weeks in prison after pleading guilty in the Queenstown Court on Monday, 9 February. Shute says he was charged with theft and unlawfully being in a building after entering the Top 10 Holiday Park and taking a key from the drop box at 6.20pm on Saturday, 7 February. She says he had then walked around the park and used the facilities. He later entered the male bathrooms and locked himself in a shower cubicle where he planned to sleep.
Mayor calls in vehicle fire on Crown Range
Queenstown Lakes District Mayor John Glover was first on the scene when a Ford Ranger erupted into flames on the Crown Range between 5.30pm and 6pm on Wednesday, 4 February, leaving the driver – a contracting worker, shaken.
Glover says the Ranger had been heading from Wanaka to Queenstown when there was obviously some malfunction of the engine causing smoke and oil to come from the back of the ute. The driver pulled over to a chain-fitting bay and attempted to extinguish it with a fire extinguisher to no avail. “It was a very rapid spread. I called the fire in and waited with the driver, who was obviously shaken, until the Arrowtown Brigade arrived,” Glover says. Arrowtown station officer Alex Holden says two appliances attended the fire on the Arrowtown side of the summit and, thankfully, the sole occupant was uninjured.
Skip bin disintegrated by fire
Police and Fire and Emergency NZ locally are warning against disposing of cloths and brushes soaked in linseed oil, or any other highly flammable oils, without thorough washing and airing outside after a skip bin fire at Kelvin Heights early on Sunday, 8 February. Constable Amanda Shute says they were called to a suspected rubbish bin arson and inquiries by the attending detective revealed a cloth soaked in linseed oil had been put in the bin with garden waste the previous day.
“Linseed oil is highly flammable and can spontaneously combust, which is believed what happened in this case,” Shute says.
FENZ assistant commander Nic McQuillan anyone using linseed oil, or paint thinners and similar oils, should never screw them up and put them back in a cupboard. “They will self-combust so hang them in an aerated space to dry,” he says.
A neighbour says he saw the flames at the Poplar Drive-Oregon Drive corner not long before 1am and the fire disintegrated the whole bin. The owners were believed to have been using the cloths to stain chairs.
Young French driver charged after crash
A 20-year-old French driver has been charged with careless driving after allegedly crashing into the back of a turning vehicle on Malaghans Road at 12.30pm. Shute says the collision allegedly caused the vehicle to move into the Arrowtown-bound lane and collide with another vehicle, spinning that vehicle several times, crossing into the Queenstown-bound lane and coming to rest on a grass verge. The driver appears in court on 27 February.
Drink driving:
Frankton Road
8 February – 25-year-old Southland man, 767mcg at 7.02pm. Court 27 February.
10 February – 25-year-old Christchurch man, 501mcg. Court 16 February; 18-year-old Queenstown woman362mcg. Court 27 February.
