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“(He) suddenly walked out of the centre and ran away.”
Llewell wrote that the man was suspected of carrying out an aggravated robbery in Manukau about 11am.
“It is believed he approached someone with a knife and then stole their vehicle.”
She wrote that 66 minutes later the car crashed in the northbound carriageway of State Highway 1, near the Hampton Downs off-ramp of the Waikato Freeway.
“It was later confirmed that the driver was (the man). He collided with a light truck towing a flatbed trailer and struck a guardrail/barrier.
“He was then seen fleeing from the stolen vehicle, jumping the guardrail between the north and south lanes of the highway, running into the southbound lanes and being struck by another vehicle. He reportedly stood up again and attempted to flee before being struck by another vehicle towing a small trailer.”
Witnesses later told The Herald Other drivers and emergency workers desperately tried to save the man’s life, some kneeling in the pouring rain and performing CPR in vain.
The man died at the scene and police closed the highway in both directions for more than five hours.
The man’s mother reported him missing to police just before 4 p.m., and the family learned of his death after 10 p.m., Luwell wrote.
“Based on the time he was reported missing … it appears that his mother and family were unaware of his whereabouts and whether he had been in a car accident or had died at the time.”
In the interests of justice, the man’s name has been withheld to protect the well-being of other family members.
She wrote that there was some negative public commentary at the time of the incident because other drivers were also affected by the incident and the family was concerned about being “targeted.”
Drivers interviewed The Herald It tells of the terrifying moment the man sped between the chain-link fence and the left lane.
“All of a sudden this car came out of nowhere,” truck driver Dylan Harris told The Herald then.
“I was in a truck and trailer – it was 23.5 metres long – and there was no one in the right lane, in fact no cars for a long time. And he came barrelling up from the left.
“I was doing 90 kilometres an hour and he passed me as if I was standing still… His speed was unbelievable. When I came to my senses he was already 100 metres away on the road doing the same thing to another car and lorry.”
Harris said he knew other truck drivers saw the man’s driving behavior because he could hear them on his CB radio saying, “What the hell is going on here?”
A lady traveling north told The Herald Also between the left lane and the chain link fence, a black SUV passed her at “well over 120 km/h”.
“He was speeding by, passing everybody. He was taking the third lane (on the two-lane highway) and passing everybody else. All the rocks were flying towards our car.”
The vehicle then drove out of her sight, but as she approached the overpass south of Hampton Downs, she saw the man Crash“The woman said.
“I saw him run to the other side… I didn’t see the impact because I was driving at the time… but I saw him lying face down on the road.”
The woman covered the man, who was wearing only socks and no shoes, with a blanket, and then another woman and a man began CPR in the middle of the road while others tried to shield them from the rain with umbrellas.
Later, another woman saw a paramedic kneeling on the ground, performing CPR in the pouring rain.
She said it was raining heavily and they were all huddled under the umbrella.
“He was lying in the middle of the motorway, dead. There were six to eight police officers on the scene, and there was a man in a yellow jacket doing CPR – he was standing over the man, trying to revive him, and there were people all around him.
The scene afterwards was “extremely painful”.
“I called my husband in tears and told him I loved him. When you see something like this, you just think, ‘be safepeople. If you’re 10 or 15 minutes late, that’s OK.
“I will hug my children a little harder tonight and thank God for having me home. What a humbling blessing it is to be home safely.”
Suicide and depression
How to get help:
• http://www.lifeline.co.nz/’ target=’_blank’>Lifeline: Call 0800 543 354 or text 4357 (HELP) (24/7)
• https://www.lifeline.org.nz/services/suicide-crisis-helpline’target=’_blank’>Suicide crisis helpline: Dial 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO) (24/7 service)
• Youth Services: (06) 3555 906
• http://www.youthline.co.nz/’ target=’_blank’>Youth Hotline: Call 0800 376 633 or text 234
• http://whatsup.co.nz/’ target=’_blank’>What’s new: Call 0800 942 8787 (11am to 11pm) or web chat (11am to 10:30pm)
• http://depression.org.nz/’ Depression Helpline: Call 0800 111 757 or text 4202 (24/7)
• Helpline: Need to talk? Call or text 1737
• https://www.aoaketera.org.nz/ Aoake te Rā (Suicide Relatives Service): 0800 000 053
If there is an emergency and you feel you or someone else is in danger, call 111.
Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has worked in journalism for more than 20 years, specialising in general news and features.
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