Motorists are being urged not to take matters into their own hands after a spate of deadly accidents on New Zealand roads involving tourist drivers.
The call for calm comes after a motorist yesterday signalled for a tourist driver on the West Coast to pull over -- then punched him in the face and removed the keys from his car.
Police said the man had been driving a white Toyota rental car on Main South Rd in Greymouth when a motorist in a silver sedan signalled for him to pull over.
The man then went to the driver's window, removed the keys from the car, abused the driver and punched him in the face, police said.
The victim suffered bruising to his eye, and both he and his female passenger were shaken by the incident.
Assistant commissioner of road policing Dave Cliff defended the tourist driver's actions, and said yesterday's incident was a "nasty assault" committed for no reason at all.
The tourist driver had simply moved to the right of the road and then back to the left on the urban street, he said.
"It was a really innocuous incident in terms of driving that was not unsafe ... there was nothing in terms of dangerous driving."
Mr Cliff said police were now "actively looking" for the person believed to be responsible for the assault.
It was the third time in recent weeks that motorists have confiscated car keys from tourist drivers.
On Monday, Haast woman Sheri Wright confiscated the car keys of a Chinese tourist driving badly at Franz Josef Glacier. She has since defended her actions, and said it was the responsible thing to do.
Last month, a member of the public confiscated the car keys of an Australian driver near Lindis Pass.
Mr Cliff yesterday discouraged people from taking matters into their own hands.
He said if anyone noticed someone driving carelessly they should call police. However, he agreed it was dependant on circumstances.
"But the first option is to try and get us -- we don't want people doing this and getting into altercations."
Mr Cliff said police were not complacent about tourist driver crashes. He said education was available to visiting motorists, and rental car associations were attaching road safety messages to steering wheels.
The Greymouth incident comes after new figures this week showed the West Coast has the worst record in the country for serious road incidents involving foreign drivers in the past five years -- 37 per cent between 2009 and 2013.
Grey District mayor Tony Kokshoorn said there was a "definite issue" with tourists driving on the wrong side of the road, and he had seen three such incidents in the recent past.
However, he was concerned that "extremist behaviour" from Kiwi drivers was becoming a trend, adding that the actions of the man involved in yesterday's incident were "disgraceful" and "inappropriate".
Mr Kokshoorn said simple and concise driver education was the solution.
Eight people have died in tourist crashes in the last fortnight -- and the number of incidents climbed again yesterday.
A Japanese tourist was critically injured when his rental car and a truck collided near Christchurch.
Witnesses said the rented Suzuki Swift had been turning right on to McLeans Island Rd when it collided with a truck and trailer travelling south along the road shortly after midday.
The truck driver was uninjured, while the tourist was taken to Christchurch Hospital, where he remained in a critical condition yesterday.
The crash came shortly after four Chinese people had a lucky escape when their rental car plunged 20m down a bank and ended up submerged in a West Coast river.
Police said the 4WD Honda went off a gravel road and crashed down a bank into the Whataroa River just before midday yesterday.
All the occupants managed to escape before the car became fully submerged. None were seriously injured.
Tourist drivers have also made numerous appearances in South Island courts this week.
The most recent hearing was for German man Daniel Muller, who pleaded guilty in Christchurch District Court yesterday to a charge of careless use of a vehicle causing death yesterday.
Witnesses reported he ran through a stop sign on Monday, colliding with a car driven by 54-year-old Leeston Stephanie Ellis. She was cut from the car but later died at the scene.
He will reappear in court for sentencing on March 10.
Online tributes continued to pour in yesterday for Ruby Jay Marris, 5, who died in a crash on State Highway 1 near Moeraki last Saturday.
The Marris family, of Oamaru, were travelling north when their car and a car driven by a 32-year-old Chinese man collided.
Online tributes to Ruby described her as a "beautiful little angel" and a "fun-loving princess".
The Chinese tourist, whose name is suppressed, was charged with one count of dangerous driving causing death and four counts of dangerous driving causing injury.
He entered no plea to any of the charges and was remanded on bail.
By Nikki Papatsoumas of NZME. News Service
