Waimate police are trying to piece together the movements of a Christchurch man seriously injured when the van he was driving left the road and crashed into a hedge at Glenavy, north of Oamaru, on Saturday.
Ken Kotara (57), an employee of a Christchurch air conditioning company, had been believed to be in Invercargill or on his way there on Saturday, but was heading north when the crash occurred about 12.15pm, senior constable Clint Vallender said yesterday.
"We are interested in where he has been and what he has been doing for the past couple of days. His movements are a bit of a mystery."
Mr Kotara was the only person in a company van which went through a fence and travelled about 100m across a paddock before crashing into a large macrocarpa hedge, snr const Vallender said.
He was taken by ambulance to Oamaru and air lifted to Dunedin Hospital where he was in a critical condition in the intensive care unit last night.
• Police hunting for a hit-and-run driver who left a well-known road safety campaigner dead say it is likely they would be aware they had hit someone.
Father-of-two Fred Ogle, of Whangarei, was struck by a vehicle while cycling on State Highway 14 at Maungatapere, 3km west of Whangarei, at 9.20am yesterday. He died at the scene.
Northland road policing manager Inspector Clifford Paxton said it appeared both Mr Ogle and the vehicle which hit him were travelling in the same direction.
