The injured woman’s landlord called the man, who did not wish to be named, soon after the crash to tell him his partner was in hospital.
“I rushed from Hamilton to Gisborne. I drove the same night to be by her side.
“She was able to speak at that time. She told me she was having dinner, sitting on the other side of the table when the car crashed through the wall of the house.”
Even though the woman had no external injuries, internally her abdomen had been seriously injured, he said.
“She was feeling a lot of pain in her abdomen and spewed out blood. The doctors at Gisborne Hospital admitted her after running scans and checks. They discovered her duodenum had been split.”
Doctors in Waikato Hospital were optimistic about her recovery, he said.
“They will try to wake her up today, slowly disconnecting machines. She still has difficulty breathing on her own.”
The woman had no family in New Zealand and her partner was her only support.
“I did not want to hide anything from them. I know her mother very well. I told her everything. We both have been restless.”
The man said he was angry and upset with the circumstances surrounding the horror event.
“A home is a place where you feel safe and not where a car ploughs through the wall.
“I am still angry about it.”
He said the woman’s overseas-based family was dependent on him for information.
“They are pretty upset. Especially her mother. She cries every day on the phone saying this should never have happened.”
The injured woman’s employer, GHD New Zealand Asia Pacific, said the company was very saddened to hear of the accident involving one of their workers in Gisborne last week.
”Our thoughts go out to everyone involved,’” said executive general manager Van Tang. “We are doing everything we can to ensure our colleague and their family are fully supported.”
A police spokesperson said on January 11 at 8.40pm a vehicle fled after sighting police.
Officers followed the vehicle and did not activate lights or sirens.
“The car collided with a house on Tyndall Rd, Kaiti, and one person was injured.
“The person injured was a resident of the house and was transported to Gisborne Hospital with serious injuries.”
The driver of the car – a 37-year-old Gisborne man - was uninjured and taken into custody at the scene, the spokesperson said.
He was charged with reckless driving, failure to stop for police and wilful trespass.
He appeared in Gisborne District Court on January 12 and was due to reappear on February 1.
