A senior police officer says he stood at the bedside of a critically injured colleague in despair over the weekend, listening to machines whirring and thought “what an absolute waste”.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, the young policeman was allegedly hit by a fleeing driver in Palmerston North as he lay road spikes.

It was not the only incident in the region — with another man critically injured after being hit by a car in Feilding just two hours earlier. The driver fled the scene, police said.

The injured policeman was flown to Wellington Hospital, where he remains in intensive care.

On Monday, Central District Commander Superintendent Dion Bennett said the officer was in a stable condition but remained on a ventilator.

“It’s a time [to] wait and see as time heals him.”

Bennett said the two people in the vehicle that allegedly hit the officer are 14 and 15 years old.

They are facing a “raft of charges”, including theft of a vehicle and reckless driving causing injury — an offence that carried “significant and serious penalty”, he said.

Bennett said despair came to mind when he thought about the injured men.

“I stood at the bed side of our officer yesterday with his family and as we watched and listened to the machines whirring and uh, you stand there and think ‘what an absolute waste’. This could be avoided. The behaviour of the drivers in both incidents is not acceptable and this is a tragic event for the two families involved but also for all of Manawatū.”

Bennett said police staff were “getting on with business and acting professional”.

However, this was a sadness hanging over the officer’s team and wider team “as we wait for some positive news about how he’s doing and whether his recovery is going to be successful”.

Injured man remains in ICU

Bennett said the man hit by a vehicle in Feilding also remained in ICU on a ventilator.

He said two separate inquiries were being carried out and would determine in the incidents were connected.

At this stage, it didn’t appear they were — with one incident involving a fleeing driver and the other involving “anti-social illegal road users”.

Bennett said the region had a history of serious and violent interactions with boy racers and it wasn’t a challenge police would back away from.

He said police were keen to hear from anyone with information about the driver who fled the Feilding scene.