Drink driving charges after car crashes into crowd

A man who police say drove into a group of people in the Coromandel on Saturday has been charged with drink driving.

Police said three people were injured, although earlier reports said there was a fourth victim, when the driver lost control of the car and ploughed into a group of people in the front yard of a house in Otahu Road, Whangamata, about 4pm.

The man, who was driving a modified V8 Holden, was trying to overtake two vehicles when he clipped the front bumper of one vehicle and fishtailed out of control, police said.

The car narrowly missed a woman on a motorscooter, mounted the footpath and collided with a group of about 10 people , 2-3m back from the road .

Police attending the incident said it was sheer luck no one was killed in the incident which happened during the weekend-long Beach Hop, an annual event that attracts large crowds and large numbers of car enthusiasts.

The 22-year-old man from Mount Maunganui will appear in Waihi District Court on one charge of driving with excess breath alcohol, three charges of driving with excess breath alcohol causing injury and three charges of dangerous driving causing injury after he crash in Whangamata.

Two Tauranga teenagers remain in Waikato Hospital following the crash.

Nigel Fluharty, 18, who suffered multiple fractures, extensive spleen damage and concussion in the crash, was today transferred out of the high dependency unit into a ward, Waikato DHB spokeswoman Mary Anne Gill said. He was in a stable condition.

Mary-Beth Wood, 15, whose leg was fractured when it was clipped by the sliding car , was in a comfortable condition in a ward, Ms Gill said.

- NZPA