Passenger thrown from car in Karetu, Northland crash

Medics and firefighters work on the patient before she is loaded into the helicopter. Photo / Peter de Graaf

A woman has been airlifted to hospital after she was thrown from a vehicle as it rolled in the Bay of Islands on Monday.

The single-vehicle crash occurred just after 11am on Waikare Rd, Karetu, as a Toyota Hilux station wagon with four occupants was heading west towards Kawakawa.

The vehicle lost control and rolled, glancing off a power pole before coming to rest upside-down on the roadside.

The female front-seat passenger was thrown out and landed in water in a swampy paddock.

Police, Kawakawa and Paihia fire brigades, St John Ambulance and the Northland Rescue Helicopter responded.

The first responders at the scene had to hold her head out of the water while moving her as little as possible in case she had suffered neck or spinal injuries.

The Northland Rescue Helicopter on a hilltop paddock above the crash scene on Waikare Rd. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Kawakawa fire chief Wayne Martin said police and volunteer firefighters carried out first aid until the helicopter arrived.

"We had to act quickly to get her out of the cold water and remove the risk of water getting in her airways," he said.

Once stable she was carried to a hilltop paddock overlooking the crash scene where the helicopter had landed.

A St John spokeswoman said she was flown to Middlemore Hospital in Auckland in a serious condition.

Senior Constable Lance Davies, of Mid North Highway Patrol, said the male driver was taken by ambulance to Bay of Islands Hospital with moderate injuries.

Two children in the back seat were shaken but suffered only minor scrapes.

They were taken by whānau members to Bay of Islands Hospital for a precautionary check-up.

They were "very lucky" the vehicle had glanced off the power pole, avoiding a full impact.

The Northland Rescue Helicopter takes off from a hilltop paddock above the crash scene on Waikare Rd. Photo / Peter de Graaf

It was not yet known if the injured woman was wearing a seatbelt.

An investigation into the cause of the crash was continuing.

It occurred on a straight stretch of Waikare Rd in fine conditions.