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Watch: Ute takes evasive action to avoid head-on in Queenstown

Author
Tracey Roxburgh, Otago Daily Times,
Publish Date
Wed, 13 Feb 2019, 2:32PM

Watch: Ute takes evasive action to avoid head-on in Queenstown

Author
Tracey Roxburgh, Otago Daily Times,
Publish Date
Wed, 13 Feb 2019, 2:32PM

Queenstown police are trying to track down the driver of a rental van who forced an oncoming vehicle off the road on State Highway 6 near Garston.

The Otago Daily Times was shown dashcam footage by Sergeant Chris Brooks, of Queenstown, this morning.

Police were sent the video by a motorist travelling in the same direction as a convoy of white rental vans - it was not immediately clear when the footage was filmed.

The video showed several vans in the lead and another rental van passing a truck to rejoin the convoy.

The final Apollo rental van is then seen overtaking the vehicle with the dashcam fitted, swerving partly in to the correct lane to avoid a collision, then pulling back out to overtake the truck at speed and catch up to the convoy.

A vehicle travelling in the opposite lane had to pull off on to a gravel verge to avoid a head-on collision.

Sgt Brooks said the standard of driving was "shocking", but ''not an unexpected for these roads".

"They are busy [roads] and tourists are trying to reach their destinations in a hurry ... I've stopped people trying to get from Mount Cook to Milford Sound in a day.

"It's pretty hard to change their behaviour because it could be just a one-off visitor.''

Police were grateful to the motorist who filmed the incident and sent it in, he said.

"For them to make that effort, it's great."

Inquiries as to whether or not the driver, who was believed to be Chinese, was still in New Zealand were being made, he said.

Police have contacted Apollo and are locating the driver.

 

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