Rotorua floods: Couple out walking rescue crash victim in Hamurana

The crashed vehicle on Tauranga Direct Rd quickly filled with water. Photo / Bernadette Seevens

A Rotorua couple going for a walk became first responders to a crash at the end of their driveway yesterday.

Bernadette Seevens and her husband, Pierre, were in the kitchen of their cottage on Tauranga Direct Rd, Hamurana, when they noticed the culvert outside was full of water.

"We put on our wet weather gear and headed down for a look. Two minutes later a car came around the corner, swerved one way and then the other way in the surface water and hit the curb. It bounced up and then went down into the culvert."

The crashed vehicle in the culvert on Tauranga Direct Rd on Sunday. Photo / Bernadette Seevens

Bernadette said the crash was in slow motion but really "it all happened very quickly".

"I sprinted across the road and helped the man out of his car and the water. All he could say was 'What did I do? What did I do?'. He was a young guy in his early 20s."

Once Bernadette had established the man was uninjured, she told him to "turn the car off and get out".

Image 1 of 61: Flooding in Rotorua. Cormac Davis, 12, . Moncur Dr. Photo/Ben Fraser

He was helped out of the surging water car by Bernadette and Pierre and they tried to calm him down.

"He suddenly panicked about his tools and went back into the car to get them," she said.

After getting the man out a second time, the couple told him to call someone to pick him up, and, eventually, his friend from Rotoiti arrived.

"Two cars almost crashed along the same stretch of road as we waited. People were just not driving to the conditions. This guy was just lucky he was okay."

Recalling the accident today, the Seevens were humble about their actions at the scene.

"Anybody would [help] wouldn't they? You'd hope so," Bernadette said.