Multi-sport star Gurney hit by train

Steve Gurney. Photo / Supplied

Nine-time Coast-to Coast champion Steve Gurney says he should have died when his car was hit by a passenger train in Canterbury this morning.

The car driven by Gurney was hit at a railway crossing on Marsh Road, Rangiora at around 7.26am.

Police said the occupant had no obvious injuries and there was only one person in the car.

Speaking to nzherald.co.nz from hospital, where he was getting a check-up, he said, "Yeah I'm okay. I'm about to go and buy 10 Lotto tickets," Gurney said.

"I should have died in that train crash."

Asked what happened, Gurney said: "I didn't see the train I suppose."

He said he was not in a fit state to comment further.

No one on the train was injured.

It's not the first time Gurney has had a serious accident.

The triathlete fractured his shoulder and jaw when he crashed a kite buggy during an attempt at crossing the Sahara in 2009.

Gurney also needed surgery to remove glasses which became embedded in his forehead.

In 1994 he contracted severe leptospirosis when bat dung got into a gash in his leg, during an adventure in Borneo.