'I just helped them just for humanity's sake'

Photo / Supplied

When a serious car crash unfolded outside his house this morning, Ashish Bakshi was quick to react.

The 25-year-old chef had just arrived home from work at about 10am when he heard the sound of the head-on crash. He ran outside to find five or six other neighbours at the scene on Allenby Rd in Papatoetoe, which he had just passed by.

Ashish Bakshi. Photo / Supplied

"I just passed that point ten seconds ago and I'd just entered my house and I heard the noise, the banging, the horn, because the heads collided."

The head-on crash involved two vehicles. One car had a single driver, who Bakshi described as a woman in her late twenties, while the other was driven by a man in his forties with three children.

His neighbours had already helped remove the woman, who he said was not able to move and appeared to have suffered injuries to her legs or back.

The man driving the other vehicle was unconscious and trapped behind a jammed door, Bakshi said.

"Because the door was badly jammed, I broke the door and I took him out. Then I called the ambulance and I called the cops."

Emergency services arrived five minutes later, while Bakshi and his neighbours helped tend to the injured people.

"There were two kids, one was like five years, the other one about seven years and one girl looked 13 or14-years-old - she looked alright, didn't have any injuries.

"I was waiting for the ambulance to come and look after the kid and was holding that kid's head with cloth as it was bleeding real bad."

Badly shaken from the experience, Bakshi said his actions were not heroic, but simply necessary.

"I just helped them just for humanity's sake and that's what I felt right at that time, not to become some hero or something."

The scene of the crash. Photo / Supplied

He also said he had prior concerns about the safety of Allenby Rd and had asked Auckland Council to install speed breakers.

"It's a little bit curvy and every time the road is full of cars on both sides and they drive very fast and are not able to balance."

Bakshi and his neighbours were unaware of what had caused the crash, but the Serious Crash Unit is now investigating.

A spokesman for St John ambulance service said seven people were injured in the crash, including the three children.

At the time of the crash, four were in a serious condition and three were in a moderate condition. They were transported to Middlemore Hospital for treatment.

Two patients had since been discharged, while all others were now stable, a spokeswoman for Middlemore said. Two of the children had suffered fractures in the crash.

Following his "bad morning", Bakshi said he hoped to visit the victims of the crash in hospital to make sure they were alright.

- NZME