"This is going to be messy". That is what a truck driver thought when a car overtook him on the Kaimai Ranges - driving on the wrong side of the road and into the opposite side of the passing lane.
Shocking dashcam footage has emerged showing two different angles of the nail-biting moment a motorist driving a courtesy car overtook a truck, swept onto the wrong side of the road and then into another lane - narrowly missing an oncoming Toll truck.
Ivan Lammas was driving along the Kaimai Ranges on Tuesday morning when the person driving a courtesy car became impatient.
"They had been tailgating me down Kaimai for quite some time, [I] just had a feeling he was going to do something stupid."
And then they did, the car overtook Lammas and onto the wrong side of the road - just metres away from colliding with an oncoming Toll truck.
"This is going to be messy, at that stage, we didn't know if there was a car coming alongside the Toll truck," Lammas said.
Senior sergeant of road policing in the Western Bay of Plenty Wayne Hunter told Newshub police will be investigating.
Hunter said he's "never seen anything like that" in the 46 years he has been a police officer.
"That was a fatal crash waiting to happen, absolutely appalled by that driving."
Lammas said he sees stupid driving on Aotearoa's road every day but "that's next level". He said he certainly wasn't expecting the driver to go down the opposite side of the passing lane.
The truck driver said what the video doesn't show is the car continues in the lane opposite the passing lane for about 200 metres.
"There was another truck and other cars coming up in the passing lane he was in," Lammas said.
"He only got back just in time."
The courtesy car is owned by Action Automotive, a spokesperson told Newshub they have since got the car back.
"Not impressed, we can't have people driving like that."
The spokesperson told Newshub the person driving the car has since apologised but they haven't heard from them since.
Lammas said driver behaviour needs to change on the Kaimai Ranges, too often he sees car drivers become more and more impatient.
"At the end of the day we are just trying to do our job and get home safely, I'm thankful no one was hurt."
A police spokesperson told Newshub they are following strong lines of enquiry to locate the driver.
"Police are appalled at the disregard some motorists show for the safety of other road-users."
Newshub has approached Toll for comment.
