Officers breached driving policy when cars collided during callout

Two police officers were found to have breached urgent duty driving policy when one patrol car hit another at high speed on Auckland's northern motorway last year.

The crash occurred on October 1, 2024 around 9.30pm, as both officers drove north on State Highway 1 near Puhoi under lights and sirens, but were responding to separate emergency incidents.

One officer was headed to a crash where a pedestrian had been struck and seriously injured on the southbound lanes of the motorway, while the other officer was attending another separate incident.

The motorway at that location was a dual carriageway separated by a wire barrier.

According to the IPCA summary released Monday, the first officer slowed in the inside northbound lane to attempt a U-turn through a gap in the barrier – a staggered split designed for emergency use.

"The officer had not used them before, and this section of road is poorly lit," the report summary read.

The gap could not be navigated safely using a sharp right-hand turn. Realising this, the officer attempted to pull over to the right as far as he could to allow traffic to pass.

The summary said the driver of a second police vehicle travelling behind him at around 157km/h could not stop in time and crashed into the side of the first vehicle.

"The first officer sustained a serious leg injury. The second officer was uninjured. Both police vehicles were written off."

Waitematā District Commander Superintendent Naila Hassan said police acknowledged the summary's findings in a statement to 1News.

"Police commenced an investigation into both officers’ actions on the night, and found that both officers’ actions met the evidential standard for careless driving and both had breached the Police Urgent Duty Driving Policy."

The IPCA summary said the first officer's actions created a hazard for other traffic, while the second office was travelling too fast to safely stop in an emergency.

Hassan said police considered the Solicitor-Generals prosecution guidelines as part of the investigation.

"In this case it was determined it was not in the public interest to prosecute either officer involved.

"Instead, police considered it appropriate to deal with this matter through an internal employment process."