Serious injuries in Port Hills crash

A man seriously injured after driving off Dyers Pass Rd in Christchurch may not have been found if a witness did not see him plummet over the hill.

The witness saw the car leave the road near Governors Bay, in the Port Hills, about 1.20pm yesterday.

A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesman said the car fell 150 metres down the steep bank.

A rescue helicopter dropped firefighters to the car, he said.

Garden City Helicopters manager Simon Duncan said it took nearly an hour to cut the man free.

He was treated at the scene before being flown to Christchurch Hospital at 3.15pm, he said.

The man had serious injuries, a St John spokeswoman said.

The car had plunged into dense bush. ‘‘Fortunately the car going off the road was witnessed by a following vehicle or no-one would have known the car was even down there,’’ Duncan said.

The Port Hills road linking Cashmere and Governors Bay is a crash hotspot – with the speed limit lowered to 60kmh in 2018.

The previous speed limit between Summit Rd and Governors Bay Rd was 100kmh and 70kmh from just above Hackthorne Rd to Summit Rd.

Several fatal crashes have happened on Dyers Pass Rd in recent years. On November 3 last year, motorcyclists Aaron Sadler,

40, and Mitchell Rutter, 23, were killed when they collided head-on.

In November 2018, 48-year-old Kyle McKitterick died on his birthday while riding his motorbike on the road and in January that same year, a German tourist in her 50s died when her motorbike collided with a car on the first day of her tour around New Zealand.

One person died after their car crashed down a steep bank on the road and landed in the Christchurch Adventure Park in December 2018.

In January, grieving father Jason Alexander, who lost daughters Tayla, 17, and Sunmara,

16, in a crash on the Summit Rd in November, pleaded with the council to make safety improvements to the road.