16 July 2009
Police attending the scene of a serious crash near a busy Hamilton intersection found themselves frustrated by people nearly running them over or walking through a cordoned off accident scene today.
Acting Sergeant Myles O'Donnell of the Hamilton Strategic Traffic Unit said emergency services were called to the scene near the intersection of Anglesea and Rostrevor Streets about 1pm.
"It appears a woman driving a red Mazda car pulled out of a business driveway on Anglesea St intending to turn south when her car has been 'T-boned' by a northbound blue Honda motorcycle.
"The impact trapped the woman in her car requiring firefighters to cut her out before she was taken to Waikato Hospital with minor injuries. The male motorcyclist suffered critical head injuries and was also taken to Hospital."
Mr O'Donnell said it was a case of officers manning a cordon around the crash scene having to have eyes in the back of their heads.
"We had one woman nearly run down an officer wearing a hi-vis vest as she was looking at the crash scene while talking on her cell phone and driving.
"About 27 people had to be asked to leave what was quite a grisly scene with one man exiting a cafe trying to take photos and another arguing he should be allowed to walk through the scene to go and get a coffee."
While investigators acknowledge cordoning off intersections can be an inconvenience Mr O'Donnell asked people to consider the seriousness of the situation Police were dealing with.
"Such cordons are set up to allow Serious Crash Unit investigators a sanitized area to carry out their analysis and ensure the integrity of the crash scene and their investigation.
"Often small pieces of debris that may be key to their investigations are thrown several metres away, as was the case today, and people walking through the scene can disturb this evidence," he said.
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