A Hastings man is in a serious condition after his car became wedged in a pile of fruit crates, dangling 10 metres above the ground.
Police told 1 NEWS they were called after a car was seen speeding along the wrong side of Karamu Road, and they failed to pull him over in the early hours of this morning.
The car sped off down Kenliworth Road and flipped into the air after hitting the gravel base of the railway lines, crashing into the pile of fruit crates around 10 metres in the air.
Police said they were not pursuing him at the time.
Neighbour Kristy Hall was woken up by the sound of the car racing down her street, moments before it crashed.
"It was definitely extraordinary," she says.
"As he raced past our house, it was clear to me that he was going way too fast for a dead-end street and before I could get out of bed, the sound of the car hitting the crates confirmed what I expected to happen."
Fire and Emergency New Zealand were called in to help pull the man from his mangled car and was taken to hospital.
Investigations into the circumstances surrounding the incident are ongoing.
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