Injuries minor as car flips, slides

The occupants of a car that flipped upside-down, slid along the road and landed in a ditch walked away with only "bumps and scratches".

Greytown Fire Chief Harry Howard said the driver lost control of the car in Bidwills Cutting Rd heading towards Martinborough, on the straight before the 100km/h zone at about 4pm on Saturday.

He said he was not sure exactly how the crash happened.

They must have overcorrected ... they ended up upside-down in a ditch on the other side of the road.

Greytown Fire Chief Harry Howard

When two trucks from the Greytown Fire Brigade arrived on the scene the three occupants of the four-wheel-drive vehicle, a man and two women all aged in their early 20s, were being assessed by paramedics.

"They were lucky. They all managed to clamber out," said Mr Howard.

He said it was apparent from markings on the road they would have slid along the road upside-down for several metres.

"They are quite lucky to walk away from it. It was upside-down for quite a while."

Mr Howard said the three received only bumps and scratches but the car was a bit of a mess. "It could have been quite bad."

He did not know if they were from Wairarapa but believed they had been on their way to the Tora Tora Tora music festival.

A woman who had stopped to help them drove them to Wellington after they had been assessed by Wellington Free Ambulance staff.

Police also attended and a fire crew managed traffic control.

No other vehicles were involved in the crash.