Passerby drags woman and dog from burning car

Firemen dampen the remains of a burned-out car that crashed south of Ruakaka. Picture / Paul Estcourt

A man has been hailed a highway hero after dragging a woman from her burning car wreck in Northland yesterday evening.

Leon Kaipo smashed through a window and pulled the dazed driver and her dog from the vehicle after it crashed off State Highway 1 near Ruakaka about 6pm.

The engine was on fire and Mr Kaipo pulled the woman to safety just minutes before the car was engulfed by flames.

Mr Kaipo said he was sure anyone else would have done the same thing.

He was on his way from One Tree Pt to Waipu to pick up his daughter from her first day in a new job when a man on the side of the road flagged him down.

The man had seen a northbound car leave State Highway 1 near the Ruakaka turn-off, fly 20m through the air and across a creek, then crash into a tree.

Constable Peter Mayne said he would recommend both men for "Highway Hero" awards. The annual awards are usually given to commercial road users in recognition of brave, heroic or humanitarian deeds.

Mr Mayne said the other man, whom he named as Patrick Barnes, had seen the crash and flagged down Mr Kaipo.

"If no one had seen her drive off the road she would never have got out herself. She would have been dead."

Mr Kaipo said he found the car on its roof and the door would not open, but the driver's window was a quarter of the way down. Smoke was coming from the engine.

"I couldn't reach in [so] I told her to cover her eyes. I looked for something heavy - a hunk of tree, I think it was - and smashed it, climbed in, unhooked her [seatbelt] and pulled her out.

"It was starting to smoke up a bit so I said, 'Hang on, I'm going to drag you out of here', and pulled her out."

Mr Kaipo also got the dog out.

About three minutes later the car was engulfed in flames, he said.

The woman, from Whangarei and aged about 40, suffered only minor injuries. Mr Mayne said she suffered from a medical condition and a witness told police she appeared to be asleep when the car left the road at 100km/h.

Asked if he felt like a hero, Mr Kaipo said: "I'm quite sure someone would have done what I did.

"It was better to do it while there was only a little bit of fire than standing around and wait for it to get out of hand."