Motorcyclist takes tourist driver's keys

Another tourist driver had their keys taken from them, this time on Friday evening for driving erratically in the Fox hills.

Constable Bill Parker, of Franz Josef, today said a motorcyclist from Wellington stopped a rental car and took the keys.

The driver from India was forbidden to drive after police were contacted, and a passenger in the car took over the driving. Mr Parker said police followed the replacement driver to make sure he could drive within his lane. "Everyone was getting quite heated at this latest incident," Mr Parker said.

Earlier this month, Robert Penman, 45, made national headlines for his stance against a foreign driver on the Otago Peninsula. Mr Penman took the keys from a tourist who had stopped on a narrow and steep road to take photographs. It later emerged Mr Penman's driver's licence had expired.

Also at the weekend, a Westport man, in his late 30s was flown to Christchurch Hospital on Friday night after being knocked off his motorcycle by a campervan near Fox River. The motorcyclist sustained a broken wrist, a broken arm and a compound fracture to his leg, which required six hours of surgery. He remains in hospital.

Meanwhile, no one was injured when a car driven by a 25-year-old visitor to New Zealand from Latvia crashed at Pleasant Flat just before the Haast Pass on Saturday. Franz Josef Glacier police constable Bill Parker said there were two people in the vehicle that drifted to the left, overcorrected, then crossed both lanes and flipped, coming to rest in a ditch.

- Greymouth Star

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