Woman saved by seatbelt... and luck

The woman lay in her partly submerged car for 20 minutes before being rescued. Photo / APN

An elderly woman is lucky to be alive after being trapped in her car as it slid from a wet road and plunged down a bank and into a fast-flowing creek near Whenuapai in northwest Auckland.

The woman, believed to be in her 70s, was travelling on Brigham Creek Rd when she clipped an oncoming car while trying to make a u-turn.

Her car went on to a grass verge, then slipped between a barrier and a fencepost down a 20m bank.

The car landed in several metres of water. The woman was saved by her seatbelt and the fact that the driver's side of the car was uppermost in the creek when the vehicle came to rest.

Members of the public, including a firefighter, raced to her aid but she was trapped for about 20 minutes.

Firefighters used a hydraulic pump to stabilise the car before helping the woman out and winching her to safety up the slippery bank on a stretcher.

She was taken to North Shore Hospital for observation.

Constable Karl Bevin of the Waitemata serious crash unit said the woman was "extremely fortunate".

The pregnant driver of the other vehicle was not injured.

The volunteer support officer for the Waitemata Fire Service, Mike Barratt, said the creek was fast-running.

"The person in the car was very lucky. The car landed on its side with the driver's side up. She was trapped on that side of the car in her seatbelt.

"If it had been the other way around, it would have been far more serious because she would have been in the water."