Mangamuka crash: Tree saves the day

CLOSE CALL: The Toyota Previa came to rest against a tree after tumbling 20m down a steep bank. PHOTO / SUPPLIED

Emergency services were amazed that two of the three people in a vehicle that tumbled into a gully west of Mangamuka Bridge on Friday afternoon walked away with minor injuries.

Kaitaia Fire Brigade Senior Station Officer Ross Beddows said the Toyota Previa left Iwitaua Rd and rolled about 20m down a steep bank before it hit a tree and came to rest on its side.

Two occupants managed to get out, one climbing the bank and flagging down a passing motorist for help. The third, a young woman, ended up partly out of the vehicle with one leg broken and trapped between the vehicle and the tree.

Mr Beddows said passers-by helped firefighters carry the injured woman up to the road in a Stokes basket, a difficult exercise given the heat and steep terrain.

"It's real mountain goat territory," he said, adding that all three occupants had been "very, very lucky".

That crash began a string of calls for the Kaitaia Fire Brigade, which continued when a vehicle left SH1 near the Paua turnoff at 10.45am on Saturday. Two occupants suffered minor injuries, the Kaitaia crew being turned back north of Te Kao.

A car that ended up in a drain on SH1 at Pamapuria, just south of the school, at 1.45am on Sunday had reportedly been unlawfully taken from a party.

The firefighters had just crawled back into their beds when they were called to SH10 at Awanui, opposite the Big River Cafe, at 2.45am, where a van travelling west had crashed at speed, slewing rear end first into a power pole.

The pole was demolished but remained standing, so the power lines did not come down. Power was cut to around 50 homes for four hours while TOP Energy replaced the pole, however.

The vehicle was driven away, over what Mr Beddows described as a concrete-strewn highway, but was spoken to by police later.

The brigade's final call for Sunday was at 2.30pm, after a minor crash on Whalers/Hukatere Rd. The crew was turned back after a Houhora appliance arrived.

An Auckland family of four escaped without serious injury after the car they were travelling in towards Kaitaia crossed Pukepoto Rd on a sharp corner just south of Okahu Rd, crashed through a farm fence and rolled late on Tuesday afternoon.