Shadbolt on movie business when he crashed

Tim Shadbolt

Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt was on council business pitching Southland as a movie location when his mayoral car rolled leaving him with cracked vertebrae and a bruised lung.

Mr Shadbolt, 59, was driving with two passengers about 1.5km south of Winton on Friday night when he crashed.

He is recovering in Kew Hospital in Invercargill with chest and spinal injuries.

One of his passengers also required hospital treatment.

Invercargill City Council chief executive Richard King said that when he crashed Mr Shadbolt was driving to meet producer Murray Francis to promote Southland for the filming of the Roland Emmerich movie 10,000BC.

Mr King asked for people to respect Mr Shadbolt's privacy.

"Tim is extremely popular all over New Zealand and is usually the first to front up to the media and the public, but right now he needs to recover and we ask people to give him some space," he said.

Deputy Mayor Neil Boniface would be Acting Mayor while Mr Shadbolt recovers

- NZPA