Radio host pulls woman from wreck

Dancing With the Stars winner and radio host Simon Barnett can consider himself a hero after pulling a woman from a wrecked car.

He said it was an ‘‘awful, awful’’ scene and thought it was going to be a fatality.

Barnett was driving with his daughters and their partners when the vehicle in front of him was involved in a two-car pile up on State Highway 5, between Taupo and Rotorua, on Friday.

The radio host first detailed the terrifying ordeal during his More FM radio show yesterday.

‘‘I see [the accident] but I’m not registering it,’’ Barnett recounted.

‘‘Well, I’m registering it now because I had to tell the police. I just look at it and it’s a moment of sheer, blind, unadulterated panic because I go ‘There is no way [the Hyundai] can avoid the silver car. There’s just no way’.

‘‘And sure enough, it just hits the vehicle, full on, straight into the side of it. And the sound is ghastly.’’

Barnett said he was sure at least one of the drivers involved was killed in the collision.

‘‘I pull the car over and my heart is in my mouth,’’ he continued. ‘‘I’m in panic mode, thinking ‘What the heck do I do?’ And then I hear screaming. And I’m like ‘Oh no’. And the first thing I see is two children’s car seats in the back of the vehicle that’s been hit. I race to the car and there’s kids crying. The driver that did the U-turn is a female and screaming ‘I’m stuck, I’m stuck’.’’

Barnett told More FM listeners that his immediate reaction was to try to pull the woman’s seatbelt off.

‘‘I jump in to the car, and I cut my fingers on the glass . . . with all the strength I can muster, it’s amazing what you think you can do that you can’t, I pull the seatbelt,’’ he said.

‘‘I ran back to the vehicle, jump in the car and cut through the seatbelt, released the woman from her vehicle. Her kids are beside themselves. They will be about five and two, if that. the poor woman kept saying, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry’.’’

Barnett said the horrific smell coming from the vehicle was ‘‘palpable’’.

‘‘She was screaming, I just thought ‘I’ve got to get her out’.’’

With steady traffic building behind them, Barnett ran to a nearby campervan and grabbed a knife, which he used to cut the woman free and pull her to safety.

Barnett said he was later told by police it was ‘‘a miracle’’ no-one was killed.

The family were on their way to Rotorua.