UPDATED 5.15PM: Police say they're not to blame for the risk to a baby during a police pursuit in Auckland today - instead they're resting fault squarely on the fleeing driver.  

Inspector Mark Fergus said the incident began when a police patrol clocked the car being driven at 124 kilometres an hour near Waimauku.  The driver initially pulled over for police, but then sped off as officers approached.  Police followed the car for five minutes, with the fleeing driver hitting speeds of up to 150 kilometres an hour, before it crashed and rolled onto its roof in Kumeu.

Mr Fergus said officers had no idea there was a baby in the car.  

"As police officers went to render first aid to the driver and passenger, they found lying next to the car a five-month-old baby."

He said officers assisted the baby first by moving it to safety and conducting first aid.  

Mr Fergus is defending the actions of officers, saying he'd listened to the pursuit commentary and indications are the officers were following procedure and protocol.  

"While he was fleeing from us, our officers constantly conducted a risk assessment.  It was sufficiently controlled that we were able to continue following him."

Instead, he thinks the driver's got some soul-searching to do.  

"He was going to be in trouble for some stuff, but did it mean he needed to put that five-month-old baby at risk - that's the question he needs to ask himself." 

 

The driver was a forbidden driver, already in breach of bail conditions and was up on a number of active charges.  

Both the baby and it's mother, the other passenger in the car, are now in Hospital with non-threatening injuries.