A police officer received minor injuries and a 14-year-old was arrested after an incident near Pūhoi, north of Auckland, on Saturday night.
At about 5pm, an off-duty officer saw "a number of youths" abandon a stolen vehicle in Takanini, south Auckland, said Waitematā District Commander Superintendent Naila Hassan.
The offenders had broken into and stolen a further two vehicles as they travelled south on the motorway towards Waikato. The police Eagle helicopter monitored the cars as they exited at the Te Kauwhata off-ramp and one of the vehicles was spiked.
The spiked vehicle then crashed into a car that was driven by a member of the public.
The member of the public and one passenger in the stolen vehicle received serious injuries and were taken to Waikato Hospital.
The uninjured youth offenders then fled from the crashed vehicle and got into the second stolen vehicle, before heading north on State Highway 1 across Auckland towards Waitematā.
Police deployed spikes north of the Johnstones Hill Tunnel north of Auckland, but the stolen vehicle stopped before hitting the spikes after they were sighted by the driver.
"At this point, the stolen vehicle has turned towards the officer, who was situated to the side of the motorway in the median strip, and driven towards him, striking his arm and knocking him backwards," Supt Hassan said.
"The officer received minor injuries and was lucky to escape serious harm due to his quick thinking in jumping away from the oncoming vehicle."
The driver then tried to do a U-turn onto the southern lane of SH1, but the car was successfully spiked.
Eight youths were found in the vehicle, ranging between 11 to 17-years-old, and were subsequently apprehended.
The 14-year-old driver was arrested and will appear in Youth Court, and the seven passengers have been referred to Youth Aid.
"The behaviour of this driver was incredibly dangerous and is unacceptable," Supt Hassan said.
"Our staff come to work to keep our community safe, and do not deserve to be the subject of such calculated and dangerous actions, as displayed by this offender."
