Driver's 'worst possible' parking effort disrupts Anzac Day dawn service
Video taken at the New Plymouth service in New Zealand shows a group of at least 15 people rallying together to move the small vehicle two metres down the road.
A crowd of people up bright and early were forced to lift a car out of the way of an Anzac Day dawn service after the driver parked it in the “worst possible place” as proceedings were due to get under way on Thursday morning.
Video taken by Reuben Doyle who attended the service in New Zealand shows a group of at least 15 people rallying together to move the small vehicle several metres down the road as hundreds of others standing in the dark waiting for the New Plymouth service to begin look on.
In the clip published by Radio New Zealand, New Plymouth RSA president and veteran Graham Chard can be heard urging any “muscle men” to help shuffle the 2009 Mitsubishi hatchback so it was no longer blocking access to a stage for speakers and wreath layers.
“We need a few hands. Come on, the more hands the better — let’s go! 1, 2, 3...hut!” he shouted over the loudspeaker as several people worked to lift the car a few centimetres off the ground.
“Ok we need some more hands!” Graham continues, prompting other attendees to trot over.
“Oh you’re kidding me,” a woman can be heard saying in the background. The crowd then cheers as the group works fits and spurts to move the car.
Car parked 'right in the middle' of Anzac service
Graham told RNZ the car owner had parked “right at the bottom of the steps, leading up to where the speakers are, right in the middle of where the wreath-layers come out to get their wreaths”.
“[The car was] right in the centre of where the lights are positioned for the crosses and the flags, so that people actually couldn’t get up onto the upper level to be able to conduct their part of the service.”
Because the area had been blocked off overnight, the veteran said he believes the driver had purposefully parked there.
“It seems that somebody had decided that they were going to move the cone, park their car, so that when we turned up at 4.45 [am], there’s a car parked right in the middle of the parade,” he told RNZ , adding he hopes the owner is “embarrassed” over the disturbance to the event.
Graham explained organisers first tried to find the driver of the vehicle, or have it removed by tow truck, but that proved to be difficult on a deadline. Police officers working the dawn service gave permission for it to be moved, he added.
Yesterday, the New Zealand Defence Force revealed it would have a reduced role in the Anzac Day dawn service in Gallipoli for the first time ever after luggage was lost at Dubai International Airport during the unprecedented flooding last week.
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