An early morning police chase that ended in a fugitive being pulled from the smoking wreck of his car easily could have hurt someone else, a bystander says.
Emergency services were called to the crash where a car flipped down a 3m bank at the intersection of Main South Rd and Quarry Rd at Green Island about 8.15am yesterday.
Dunedin area response manager Senior Sergeant Rebecca Hill said police had tried to stop the vehicle just before it crashed to discuss a ‘‘family harm incident’’, which happened earlier that morning.
"The vehicle fled police on Quarry Rd and crashed into a power pole after a very short time.
"No other vehicles were involved and no-one else was injured in the incident."
The driver’s injuries were not believed to be serious, Snr Sgt Hill said.
A witness, who did not want to be named, said the driver was a "careless, inconsiderate idiot".
"Idiots like that don’t pick or choose times because they have no consideration for other people, but a weekday in a suburban area, there are a lot of kids that walk to school in that area, so he is lucky that he only hurt himself."
Another witness, who also requested anonymity, was working on a forklift in the yard below where the car ended up. He said he heard sirens and looked up in time to see the car hitting a power pole at speed.
The pole snapped in half, and the car pulled out a mesh wire fence before falling on its roof down the bank, the witness said.
"There was s... flying everywhere."
The sole occupant of the car was dragged from the wreck by police and a colleague of the witness.
A St John spokesman said the driver was taken to Dunedin Hospital with moderate injuries.
