A driver left shocked after witnessing a speeding campervan narrowly miss an oncoming vehicle is calling on police to do more to stop dangerous driving on South Island roads.
Queenstown resident Romain Sacchettini said he was driving to Christchurch through SH8 between Omarama and Twizel when a Maui campervan overtook him into oncoming traffic.
The near miss happened on February 6, but he was keen to get the message out after police failed to act on a complaint he made at the time.
He said it all happened very quickly, and luckily both the oncoming vehicle and he himself had time to hit the brakes to avoid what could have been a deadly collision.
The oncoming traffic slowed right down and pulled over to the side after performing a hard brake to allow the campervan, which was speeding, to get past.
"When it happened, I was not angry, I was just scared — my hands were shaking and heart was racing, I was in shock.
"Afterwards the campervan didn’t slow down or stop, but they did speed up."
Mr Sacchettini tried to catch up with the campervan to get their nameplates and had to speed up to 140kmh to match the speed they were travelling at.
"It was just too much — there is a difference between making a mistake, overtaking at the wrong time, or just making the wrong decision, and travelling at 140kmh for 20 minutes, that’s just extreme recklessness."
He said while the campervan driver demonstrated very poor decision making, this was not an isolated incident on the stretch of road.
"I’m not pinning this specific driver to the wall, they are just someone like you and me that did a really bad act of dangerous driving, the point is we need agencies such as police to step up."
Mr Sacchettini said an increased presence of police on the road and an installation of a permanent speed camera along the stretch of road would go a long way to act as a deterrent.
He says he reported the incident to police, but never received a response.
In his report to police he included the campervan’s nameplates, a detailed run down of events and provided dashcam footage, as well as photos and videos he took.
Police could not locate his complaint and could not respond to any further questions by deadline.
