Woman hospitalised after being run down by carSun, 22 Jul 2007 06:29p.m. A woman is in a critical condition in Auckland Hospital after she was run down by a car outside her church this morning. Witnesses say the driver of the vehicle was speeding and running red lights in Auckland's Queen Street, narrowly missing other pedestrians just moments before the crash. Bystanders say he was driving erratically at speed when he suddenly but deliberately drove into the Methodist Mission Church. The congregation was walking out when the car hit a 58-year-old woman outside critically injuring her. Smashed glass sprayed the faces of other terrified women. “We heard the sounds of the impact of the crashed glass. I got a sore nose. She moaned from the pain,” witness Rosa Kim told 3 News.Other witnesses said they initially thought the loud noise was a bomb. The driver was injured but conscious.. As police tried to get him out of the car, he clutched his laptop computer and screamed the name of Apple's CEO Steve Jobs.A fireman then told three news he believed the man had a mental illness.Witnesses told 3 News they saw the man half a kilometre away driving on the wrong side of the road. He then picked up speed and ran through several red lights, narrowly missing pedestrians.“He sped up and I quickly shut my door and jumped out of the way because he nearly clipped me,” witness Jade Andrews said. The man was taken to hospital and spoken to by police. The injured woman has since undergone surgery for life threatening injuries. Police don't know if she was deliberately targeted. They are appealing for more witnesses.
