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Investigations are under way into the failure of a paging system and slow response time by emergency services after a fatal accident in Nelson.
A witness said Carrie-Anne McRae would have had a better chance of survival if it had not been for the delays.
The accident happened near Tapawera, about 60km southwest of Nelson city, on Friday morning.
Ms McRae suffered multiple internal injuries after her car left the road, about 3km east of Tapawera, and slammed into a tree. She died later in Nelson Hospital.
Resident Tania McArley, who was first on the scene about 11.45am, said she called emergency services from a nearby house at 12.03pm and the Tapawera Volunteer Fire Brigade was first on the scene about 12.40pm, followed by a Tapawera St John Ambulance crew five minutes later.
"It just seemed to take a long time to get a few kilometres down the road," Ms McArley told the Nelson Mail.
She said if it hadn't been for emergency service delays Ms McRae would have had a much better chance of survival.
If she had known how long the delay was going to be she would have removed Ms McRae, who was still breathing, from the car and taken her to hospital herself, Ms McArley said.
The Fire Service is investigating the failure of a satellite paging system which meant the fire chief had to call his crew by phone.
Tapawera Volunteer Fire Brigade chief Tony Norris said the pagers, which had recently been changed from a cellphone to satellite-based service to get better reception, had failed to go off.
A siren on the fire station had sounded but a lot of the crew were out of earshot, meaning crews had to be called by phone, causing "at least" five minutes delay.
The brigade was alerted at 12.12pm and was the first emergency service on the scene, 3km from the town centre.
South Island Fire Service communications centre manager Iain Lynn told the Nelson Mail there had been an "intermittent fault" in the system and the cause was being investigated.
St John Ambulance Nelson-Marlborough district manager Barry Howell said the 33-minute delay between the Tapawera crew receiving the alert and arriving at the scene was longer than he would expect and he is investigating the reasons for it.
The Tapawera St John service used both satellite and Telecom pagers, which had gone off, he said.
A nine-minute delay between the operator taking the call and notifying emergency crews was because they were trying to pinpoint the crash location.
Mr Howell said that because no one knew what time the accident happened, it was impossible to say if Ms McRae would have survived if help had arrived more quickly.
She was not breathing when the first ambulance crew arrived and was resuscitated before being put in the helicopter.
Ms McRae died later of major internal injuries.
Mr Howell said new systems were being developed that would allow all emergency services to be alerted while the operator was still on the phone.
- NZPA
