A Britz campervan driver shut down the Invercargill Central carpark for a whole hour at midday today, after his oversized vehicle hit the sprinkler system and sent water gushing everywhere.

Shopping centre manager Kelvin Mooney said when the man initially hit the height restriction sign, he continued to push on through into the carpark, hitting both a concrete barrier and the sprinkler – before reversing away again.

“These things swing and wobble for obvious reasons, but this particular gentleman has made that decision to just push on through into the carpark.”

Alarms were all set off by the incident, causing passer buys to stop and look in shock when the man then decided to flee the scene without notifying anyone.

Two fire appliances and a contractor had to be called out to fix the pipes, and because the shopping centre then had no water on level one, it was a health and safety risk, so the building also had to be shut down for an hour later in the afternoon, causing a huge disruption to shoppers and businesses.

Police will be speaking to the man after everything was caught on camera, and Invercargill Central will be looking to recover costs from the damage.

“We’re looking in the thousands of dollars, and it was in peak hour lunchtime…. this was completely disrespectful for the community.  They have acted in an irresponsible way, affecting people coming in to eat, shop and vote.”

Kelvin said there had been one incident similar in the past where a camper van misjudged the height in the carpark, but fortunately hadn’t caused the same amount of damage.

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