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A family of six escaped serious injury when their 4WD plunged 25 metres down a bank and landed upside down in a stream yesterday.
The father, mother and their four children aged 7, 11, 13 and 15 were all wearing seatbelts when their Mitsubishi Pajero crashed off the Kopu-Hikuai Road about 4km from the Thames turnoff.
The mother and a boy, believed to be the 13-year-old, were carried from the scene on stretchers but the rest of the family walked to waiting ambulances.
The Taupo family, on their way to Pauanui on the Coromandel Peninsula, were helped from the vehicle by motorists who saw the accident.
Thames police Sergeant Jim Corbett said the road was greasy from rain and the Mitsubishi appeared to have lost control on a corner.
"It hung on to the edge and then stumbled through bush."
Thames fire chief Greg Rendall said the bank was "close to vertical" but the scrub may have slowed the vehicle's decent into the low-running stream.
Emergency services accessed the site from a nearby farm and crossed 300 metres of paddock to reach the family.
Mr Rendall said: "Without seatbelts ... I'd hate to think what their injuries would have been."
