Woman has lucky escape from falling tree

Hayley Bancroft probably had every right to think yesterday was her lucky day. She was so sure she even bought a Lotto ticket.

The 25-year-old market researcher, working in suburban Paremoremo yesterday, had parked her father's Nissan Bluebird on a grass verge around 2pm and was eating her lunch in it when gale-force winds brought a tree down on the vehicle, crushing the back two-thirds. "Everybody kept asking me if I heard it, but it just seemed to blow over," said Ms Bancroft, 25.

"All I could see was the tree coming towards the car. There was no noise or anything. I had time to swear and that was about it."

She recalls sitting there for five or 10 minutes in shock "before I looked up and saw some young boy standing there seeing me cry".

And she didn't even suffer a bruise. "I was fine; walked out without a scratch."

Ms Bancroft said she managed to call her parents in Warkworth to pick her up. Trouble was they couldn't - a tree had blown over in their driveway.

Three-and-a-half hours later she had the presence of mind to buy a Lotto ticket. "I chose the numbers of all the letterboxes down the street I was working on. I sure hope I win. I need it."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY