Army medics pitched in to help rescue services after a nasty head-on smash near their base outside Christchurch this afternoon.
Three people were trapped after two cars collided near Burnham Military Camp on State Highway 1 about 1.30pm.
Police say initial enquiries indicate that a rental car travelling north, with a sole female occupant aged in her 70s, drifted across the centre line into the path of a southbound rental car, believed to have been occupied by two French tourists.
Firefighters had to cut all three people out of the two severely damaged cars.
The army medics rushed to the scene to help until St John paramedics arrived, a Fire Service spokesman said.
