An Auckland mayoral candidate and his son ended up in hospital after confronting a drunk driver near their home, then just hours later, that same driver sent four more people to the hospital.
Candidate Craig Lord said it is disturbing that the system allowed for the driver to be let out of custody so soon, as the man could have killed somebody.
On Saturday, Lord witnessed a man burning rubber in the street, crashing into cars and a power pole, and went door-knocking around his neighbourhood to find the culprit.
However, when he found the offender, the man - who was drunk - swung at his face and attacked him.
"I watched it unfold and thought well it's my duty to report it to the police, but I don't know if it is a resident or a visitor so I just grabbed my umbrella and went door-knocking to find out where the car came from," Lord told The Project.
"I did not expect it to escalate to the level it did."
Lord said he was left with a "Harry Potter scar" on his forehead but has no regrets about doing it.
Lord and his son successfully managed to restrain the man until the police came to arrest him - but that isn't the end of the story.
On Monday the police revealed the same alleged offender was involved in another crash just hours later that hospitalised two women and two children, one just eight years old.
"It's gut-wrenching that he's put three or four people in hospital," Lord said.
"The police will probably be just as upset. They won't like the idea that they had to let him go, so it's a system problem.
"I guess a whole lot of the public have to knock on the door of the Government and say 'how did that happen', because this guy could have killed someone."
A police spokesperson said a 21-year-old man is facing a raft of charges as a result.
Those include multiple dangerous driving charges as well as careless driving, assault and driving with excess breath alcohol.
He is next due to appear in court on Thursday.
As it's before the court, police were not able to go into further detail around bail conditions.
