KEY POINTS:
A sex worker hurt when she and her client plunged 100m down a Canterbury hillside in his car may be eligible for compensation for a work-related injury.
The woman is believed to have been in the car with a man driving on Christchurch's Port Hills when the vehicle went off the Summit Rd in icy weather and fell into a gully early on Friday morning.
It is understood the man had hired the woman for sexual services before the accident.
Prostitutes' Collective spokeswoman Anna Reed did not know the worker involved, but she said the Port Hills seemed an unusually long way out of the city for a client to take a prostitute.
The pair were stranded in the car for several hours in the near-freezing temperatures until passing motorists called police about 9.30am.
A helicopter was used to free the pair, who were taken to Christchurch Hospital. They were reported to be in stable condition on Friday, but updated details were unavailable yesterday.
Police are investigating the crash.
An Accident Compensation Corporation spokesman told the Herald he did not know details of the case, but if the woman was registered as a sex worker and paid taxes, she could make a claim for a work-related injury based on that.
"Although I'm not sure how she would show it was a work-related injury. If it happened in a brothel, it's reasonably straightforward," he said.
Since prostitution was decriminalised in 2003, sex workers have been able to register as a legitimate occupation and pay taxes.
"One of the issues we have with sex workers is many of them aren't what we would call legitimate employees. They are just working on the streets and ... doing it as a under-the-table type work.
"They won't be registered with the Inland Revenue [Department]."
The spokesman said ACC received so few claims from sex workers that they did not get their own category in ACC statistics, instead coming under personal services with the likes of limousine drivers.
