Fruit tree only casualty of car crash
A 30-year-old fruit tree was the only casualty when a speeding car crashed into a Taranaki couple’s backyard.
Jack Moratti and Carolyn Dylan were settling down for the night when the car, which was understood to be travelling at up to 150 kilometres an hour, lost control and crashed at Brixton, near Waitara, on State Highway 3.
The vehicle, which had been heading north, clipped a power pole, went airborne and rolled multiple times before being stopped by the couple’s beloved orange tree at 8.45pm on Monday.
‘‘We were getting comfortable going to sleep and we got woken up thinking it was thunder, but it was a car crash,’’ Dylan said.
They were unaware of how close the car had come to their home until they heard voices in their backyard and got up to see what was outside.
‘‘I was sound asleep and she woke me up,’’ Moratti said.
‘‘I got out of bed and there were cops, ambulances, the fire brigade and cars everywhere.’’
The car narrowly missed the chicken house to the right of the property.
‘‘It was here in our favourite orange bush,’’ Dylan said.
The two occupants of the vehicle were taken to Taranaki Base Hospital by St John ambulance with moderate injuries, a police spokeswoman said.
The couple said officers who attended told them the car had been travelling at speeds of 150km/h. The road is a 100km/h zone.
Dylan said the young driver was only learning.
‘‘He should have more sense,’’ she said, as recovery crews took the car away on Tuesday night.
‘‘His parents told him to come and apologise for what had happened.’’
‘‘And how they survived I
‘‘We were getting comfortable going to sleep and we got woken up thinking it was thunder.’’
Carolyn Dylan
don’t know,’’ Moratti said.
Police said enquiries into the crash are ongoing and charges are possible.