Man saves pair on edge of ravine

A panic-stricken woman was clinging to a car with her daughter inside as it teetered over a deep ravine.

It was about 5pm on February 20, and Darren Risby and partner Julie Dann were heading back to Coromandel Town on the 309 Road.

They spied the ‘‘tiny older woman’’ who seemed to be crouching down holding a car, in a panic, said Dann, owner of the Studio 531 holiday accommodation.

The pair pulled over to a terrifying sight – a car had skidded off the road and was dangling above a ravine, nothing but air below its front wheels.

The woman, accompanied by a child aged about 8, then spoke. ‘‘My daughter. She is in the car.’’

Risby, the Autofile magazine editor, leapt into action.

A small tree was keeping the car – a small Suzuki Swift – in place, he said. ‘‘Anything heavier, the tree would not have held. The car was completely off the road.’’

Risby said the child reached her hand towards him and ‘‘I just grabbed it, really tight, and just yanked her out’’.

Everyone was ‘‘pretty much in shock at this stage’’, he said, and the woman was just repeating ‘‘thank you, thank you’’.

It was ‘‘at least a 100-foot drop’’ to the bottom of the ravine, Risby said.

Dann said another vehicle arrived on the scene, a ute with two men, who took the family back to the Coromandel Top 10 resort they were staying at.

Risby visited them there later too. ‘‘I just got a big hug, which was kind of neat.’’

The couple believe the ‘‘dangerous’’ condition of the road was behind the woman’s accident.

Dann said drivers often took the route, prompted by Google Maps as a short cut between Whitianga and Coromandel Town, unaware of its condition. Risby went further.

‘‘Whoever is responsible for the stretch of road needs to pull their heads up,’’ he said. ‘‘Someone is going to die.’’ He said they travelled the route in a four-wheel-drive vehicle and ‘‘even we were struggling’’.

‘‘If you have got a small, lightweight car in those conditions, wet, road works, big grading equipment with no warning signs ...’’

Risby said that on the day of the accident, road crews were spraying water as they worked, and this was on to an alreadysodden gravel road, which turned it into a skid pan in places.

‘‘If I was losing rear-wheel traction in places in a 4WD ute, then what is it like for drivers in small cars?’’

He also said there were no signs, speed limits or stop-and-go monitoring in place, or warnings of the fact the road ahead would be ‘‘in a worse condition than it normally is’’.

‘‘The national speed limit on the 309 applies and that is a complete flight of fancy. You cannot safely drive it at more than 40kmh on the straights.

‘‘Then there are endless blind S-bends with some major climbs, reverse cambers and no barriers.

‘‘That is probably why the 309 is a stage on the Coromandel Rally but most people don’t have Hayden Paddon’s driving skills,’’ he said.

‘‘You get a mixture of backpackers in $1500 cars that should be in scrapyards, countless freedom campers in poxy top-heavy small vans that can roll like a dice, and halfwits behind the wheels of SUVS who, frankly, should not be.

‘‘Chuck in a few local hoons and it is a recipe for disaster.’’