Some "frightening" driving on a Taranaki highway has been causing a stir since being posted to TikTok.
Auckland woman Sarah Martin was driving home from New Plymouth on Sunday when she filmed footage of a white ute appearing to drift across lanes in order to block a smaller vehicle from passing on State Highway 3, Awakino Gorge.
The video shows a silver hatchback indicating right to overtake the ute and a black BMW, however the ute appears to intentionally drift in front of it without indicating, forcing the smaller vehicle onto the shoulder of the furthest oncoming right hand lane in order to get past.
The smaller car then speeds off while the ute slowly returns to the left lane, again without indicating.
Martin said the bad behaviour posted online was only a small portion of what took place.
"It was a passage of around 45 minutes of bad driving between the ute, the small car and the black BMW in front," she told 1News.
"We were all stuck behind the truck but the ute wouldn’t let anyone pass until the BMW passed, which it seemed he was too scared to do.
"We went through about five passing lanes of nobody moving and the ute blocking everyone who tried before this video was taken.
"In fact the small car at one point overtook the ute and was between them and the BMW, but the ute overtook the small car again very dangerously on a short patch of road."
However, it didn't end there, with Martin explaining what happened after the camera stopped rolling.
"Soon after this video, the BMW and ute went through a red light at a stop go sign for a one way road in the gorge just before Piopio.
"It was pretty frightening, my brother whom was driving wouldn’t let me film anymore out of fear the ute driver would see and not be happy."
She says they eventually "decided to bite the bullet" and overtake the ute and truck.
"The ute actually let us pass for some reason."
Martin didn't think to contact police at the time as she had no reception in the area and just wanted to get away from the "crazy drivers".
Her video has racked up nearly 150,000 views since being posted to TikTok yesterday.
Many people have commented on the video criticising the ute driver.
"Classic Kiwi attitude, "how dare you pass me, you're disgracing my family name!" one person wrote.
"No wonder why we have high road tolls," commented another.
Police were sent the video by 1News and said the incident had not been reported to them.
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