Girl thrown from car lucky to be alive say police

A Nelson teenager is lucky to be alive after being thrown out of the sunroof of a car which rolled and only just missed landing on her near the top of Rainbow Skifield access road.

Six other teenage passengers were uninjured in the crash which occurred at 10.30am yesterday.

Constable Jason McDonald of Murchison police described the 16-year-old girl, who is in a comfortable condition in Nelson Hospital, as "very, very lucky".

She was flown to Nelson Hospital by rescue helicopter suffering serious head, abdominal and pelvis injuries.

Mr McDonald said the vehicle crashed after a front wheel skidded in gravel and went over the road's edge on a steep, hair-pin bend known as Stratford Corner.

The car had been travelling about 10km/h or 15km/h when it rolled twice on its way down a steep 15m bank and landed on its wheels on the road below.

As the roof touched the ground on the first roll, the girl was thrown out of the open sunroof and left in a ditch where the car carried on rolling over her.

Mr McDonald said he was unsure if the girl had been wearing a seatbelt but it was possible she could have fallen out of a back-seat waist-belt.

He was unsure if charges would be laid in relation to the crash as he had not yet interviewed the 16-year-old driver.

Front-seat passenger Will Conway, 16, said the accident happened very slowly and he had rolled his body into a ball, hoping the car would stop on the road below.

He and the car's other passengers immediately ran to the injured girl.

They talked to her and kept her warm until the rescue helicopter arrived, drawing on "basic first aid, anything that we could remember from school".

Will, still shocked and nursing a sore shoulder today, said it was "extremely lucky" everyone else inside the car was uninjured.

"It was amazing that only one person went to hospital and another two had a few scratches and the rest were fine."

Will said he had been to Nelson Hospital with the car's driver to visit the injured girl last night, and seeing her stable had been a "huge relief".

- nzpa