shirl

We went out on Sunday for a nice drive out to the Oxford Market and then out to get some lunch somewhere. It was such a nice day we went the back road through Waimakariri Gorge to enjoy the beautiful sunny day and scenery. As we were climbing a up a bit of a hill (yes there are a couple in canty) we caught a glimpse of a white car heading for us over the white line coming round the corner. It was all over in a nano second it seemed like. One minute we were about to take a bend that was to veer to the right the next we were spun 180 degrees by a little white car, ours was a Ford Territory! This was the result! Luckily no one was hurt seriously and the airbags came down as you can see from the side impact. The perpetrators of this accident were 2 young girls who were Chinese nationals only been in the country 2 weeks who had bought a car and were on their way to Nelson to start work on a 12 month working visa, well that is the story they told to me. Apparently, a different story was told to the police!! They are having to appear in court on 18th April for Dangerous Driving and Driving without Due Care and Attention but the cop said don't hold out hope as they will probably skip the country before then! Beggars belief that this could happen. Why not take their passports and return them after the case has been heard. Foreigners should not be able to drive recklessly and then skip the country. Luckily or unluckily it was a company car and so OH is getting another organised today.This could have been a different outcome and we are counting our blessings. We ended up facing the other way on a blind bend and it took quite a while to get the road cleared and the cars towed away. Completely ruined our Easter.

love30stm

omg glad your ok anyway and that is disgusting that they can get away with it another reason for NZ to piss me off!!!!!!

MrsFychan

glad you are ok. does seem ridiculous that they would not take their driving licences and passports off them until the court hearing.

shirl

Yes it amazed me too. Why not take their passports so they can't leave until after the case, they advertise not being able to leave the country with fines, what is the difference? Makes me so angry! She said we are used to driving on the opposite side in China, I said well you are not in bloody China!

love30stm

Did you ask the poilice why they didnt take passports??? oh a lame excuse ive drove in France on the opposite side with no problems! im amazed that they just got away with it what the ???
you could have been serioulsy injured !!!!

shirl

It all happened so quickly, we could not have said which one of the girls was driving even, for all we know they could have been on their mobiles or distracted in some other way, they did try and drive off though but thank goodness their car was not going to drive after the impact! They stopped about 100 yards down the road. They even thought the car would be repaired that day so they could continue their journey! Scary thought that they even have licences to drive with that mentality!

MrsFychan

cheeky mares. did you manage to get photo's of their car/them?

simonsi

Ring the police back and make sure they have Attempting to Leave the scene of an accident to the list.

There is a cutoff for retention of passports for offenses though and I'm not sure traffic offenses meet that threshold in most countries I'm aware of (at least those that aren't police states).

babybella

What a horrible experience, so glad you are ok.
Kaz

Charismatic

Yeah right...it'll polish out .

Bloody Asian drivers etc. etc. Good to hear everyone walked away .