"With a busload of kids on the way to school, I couldn't stop.
"But the kids were very excited about what they'd seen," he said.
Te Puke fire service station officer Ivan Pilcher said the two men were extremely lucky not to be hurt in the incident.
"The branches came down on each side of the car and one on the roof but because it was in the second lane, [no one was hurt] they were extremely lucky."
Mr Pilcher said he had heard of branches coming down in the area before from other various trees but it normally happened in high winds.
There was no wind at all, only fog, and no indication why it happened, he said.
Mr Pilcher said the tree did show signs of decay where the limb had split off from the main trunk.
He said the lucky men should head out and buy a Lotto ticket.
In another stroke of luck, the tree that fell on their car was a comparatively lightweight Melia Azedarach (commonly called an Indian bead tree) rather than the substantial puriri trees, which line the median strip through the commercial centre of Te Puke.
Bystanders in the street agreed the motorist was fortunate he was driving eastwards, in the outer lane where the end of the branches fell. Had he been in the lane closer to the trees, the result may have been more serious.
The car was loaded onto a trailer and taken to a panelbeaters for repairs while the tree and the fallen limb were removed by tree removal specialists. It was believed the tree was 20 to 30 years old.
Western Bay of Plenty head of road policing Senior Sergeant Ian Campion said the two occupants of the car were uninjured.
He understood three cars nearby were hit by falling branches.
That was just one of the incidents causing chaos on Western Bay roads yesterday.
Officers had gone "from accident to accident" through the day, Mr Campion said.
A car slammed into a power pole in Paengaroa, causing a power cut to the area earlier yesterday morning. A fire service spokesman said the incident happened at 5.20am, causing the power lines to fall onto the road.
When fire appliances arrived the sole occupant was standing outside the car and he was treated for moderate injuries.
Just after 1pm yesterday, police were called to a two-car crash in Welcome Bay.
"A couple of people have had an altercation resulting in two cars travelling down Meander Drive into Langstone St. During the journey, one of the vehicles has crashed a number of times into the other vehicle, causing it to lose control," Sergeant Mark Duytshoff said.
"Both vehicles crashed and came to rest on a person's driveway against a fence."
Mr Duytshoff said police arrested a driver and charged him with dangerous driving and assault with a weapon - the weapon being the car.
A power box was hit during the incident, cutting power to Welcome Bay and Ohauiti homes until about 7.30pm last night.
