BRICK HURLED ON TO AUCKLAND MOTORWAY SMASHES INTO FAMILY’S CAR, CHILD LEFT TRAUMATISED

An Auckland family were lucky to escape injury after a brick was hurled from a North Shore overpass, crashing into their windscreen.

Now the young family are wondering how they will drive the stretch of road again as the alleged offender has yet to be caught.

Wai Murrell was on the way home from the airport with her two young children, aged 3 and 6, and her mother after picking her up from the airport.

She was driving on the Northern Motorway under the Sunnynook overpass when the incident occurred.

“I just saw this orange brick fall and hit the windscreen, and it’s on my mum’s side on the passenger’s side,” Murrel said.

The brick smashed the windscreen but did not break through the glass.

“It was horrendous,” Murrel said.

She said she sat on the side of the busy motorway for half an hour describing the incident to the police while consoling their 6-year-old. Her 3-year-old daughter slept through the incident.

“I’m just thinking that something really awful could have happened and we’re so lucky,” Wai said.

She said she was thankful the motorway was not packed and her instincts told her not to swerve or things “could have been a lot worse”.

Wai’s husband Sam said their son was “terrified”.

“He keeps asking ‘what if someone throws something off the bridge again? What if it hits dad’s car?’”.

The family are worried about driving on the motorway now while the brick-thrower remains at large.

“I don’t know what the odds are of it happening again, but at the same time, like it’s not like I could do anything to stop it if it didn’t happen again,” Wai said.

“You know, you can’t stop someone from throwing something off of a bridge.”

Sam has released images to the Herald so the public might be able to help catch the alleged offender.

“We just want to find this person because they’re just walking around at the moment and they could hurt someone else very soon if they’re in that sort of frame of mind.

“No one should ever have to through this.”

He asked anyone driving on or near the overbridge at 1.50pm yesterday to get in touch with police.

A police spokesperson said police were making “inquiries” into the matter.

Rachel Maher is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. She has worked for the Herald since 2022.

2024-06-23T01:35:56Z dg43tfdfdgfd