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Waitress left shaken after near-miss in Takapuna

Flagstaff Team

Burnouts seen before lucky escape

A waitress at a Takapuna restaurant has told the Observer of her shock after narrowly avoiding being hit by a car which lost control and mounted the footpath.
Karen Edde (29) was taking a break outside Botticelli restaurant on Anzac St, at 10.43pm on 29 May when she saw a car speeding towards her. She ducked back into the restaurant, narrowly avoiding being struck by the vehicle, which witnesses said was a BMW.
“I’m lucky the door was open,” she said.
Police say she is lucky to be alive.
A 19-year-old has since appeared in the North Shore District Court in relation to the incident, charged with dangerous driving. He was remanded to appear again this week, when he was expected to enter a plea.
Edde said the incident was “very very scary”.
She said she struggled to breathe and was shaking afterwards, as if she was having a panic attack. She had to be calmed down by customers and other staff at the restaurant. “It was horrible.”
The driver fled from the area without stopping his vehicle.
Edde, who has been working at the restaurant for five years, said she didn’t see what happened before the near-miss, but customers told her the driver was doing burnouts moments before. Witnesses who work at the nearby Takapuna Bar told the Observer the vehicle was driven up Anzac St from the beach-end roundabout.
Security-camera footage from both the bar and Botticelli’s was provided to police.
Edde said she had to take a couple of days off work to recover from the incident. She had tried to return the following day but suffered badly from anxiety being back at where it happened
“It is probably by sheer luck that we were not investigating a fatality because of this idiotic behaviour,” Police Sergeant Christopher Lindsay said last week.
“The public should be able to feel safe on our roads, free from preventable incidents such as this,” he said. “When this sort of illegal behaviour happens on the road, those drivers not only put other motorists and members of the community in danger, they also put themselves at risk.”
The alleged offender appeared in court on 25 July. He was given name suppression until his next appearance.

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