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A Canterbury jet boat operator has described how an injured father desperately tried to dig his daughter out from underneath a car with his bare hands.
The 12-year-old, believed to be on a ski holiday from Australia, was killed yesterday when the vehicle in which she was travelling hit black ice, sliding into a gully at about 11.15am at the bottom of Rakaia Gorge, near Darfield and the Mt Hutt Skifield.
Ric Gorgeson, who runs River Tours, said he was getting ready to launch his jet boat when he heard "a scream and a crash and then nothing". He drove down the road to find the girl's father and another male passenger out of the vehicle, which had landed on top of the girl.
"The father was in terrible shape, desperately trying to dig his daughter out with his bare hands," Gorgeson said. "I told him there was a pulse, and I remember his eyes, just pleading with me to keep her alive... Her pulse got weaker and weaker, then it stopped."
Police, fire, ambulance and the Westpac helicopter all arrived just as Gorgeson, a trained first aider, and others were trying to formulate a plan to lift the car. "There were 20 people around and we couldn't lift it off her."
* A 25-year-old Hastings man was killed hours earlier when his car crossed the centre line south of Eketahuna, colliding with a truck. Police said he died at the scene and was the sole occupant of the car.
* One person died and six others were taken to hospital after a van rolled on SH5 yesterday afternoon just north of Reparoa, 42km southeast of Rotorua. The road was closed and diversions put in place.
