Crash driver found asleep with pistol on lap

A man was found slumped over his steering wheel with what appeared to be a handgun on his lap after crashing his vehicle into a fence in Dunedin early today.

Senior Sergeant Anthony Bond, of Dunedin, said the 41-year-old man was found crashed into a fence in Maryhill Terrace at 5.40am. 

The man was asleep and slumped over the steering wheel when police arrived.

Officers smashed a window of the vehicle to reach the man and discovered the firearm to be a blank-firing pistol.

The man, believed to be on drugs, was arrested and would undergo an impairment test.