Man escapes from sinking ute after crash
Witnesses who saw a ute driving at high speed into the sea off Nelson said a male occupant was under the water for several minutes before emerging from the sunken vehicle.
The witnesses, who didn’t want to be named, said they couldn’t see the ute when they got to the shore at the Boulder Bank on Thursday morning. As they debated whether to enter the water, they saw a man surface and struggle to swim ashore.
‘‘He was underneath the water for quite some time,’’ one witness said. They helped the man to reach the shore.
They said they heard the ute before they saw it, and estimated it was travelling around 150km before it drove through the carpark at the end of Boulder Bank Drive and down another 30 metres or so into the sea.
A police spokeswoman said police received a report of the crash at 8.53am.
She said the driver was out of the vehicle and did not appear to be seriously injured but was taken to hospital as a precaution.
Police were not aware if anyone else was in the vehicle, she said. Coastguard was also at the crash scene.
St John Ambulance spokesman Gerard Campbell said a man was taken to Nelson Hospital by ambulance in a moderate condition.
Nelson Fire Service senior station officer Steve Shackleton said there was no sign of the ute from the shore, he said, but firefighters had been told it was submerged in about 5m of water.