‘It’s amazing no-one was killed’
Car pins two men after crashing through house
One minute, two friends were enjoying a Friday night beer with mates; the next they were trapped beneath a car that had crashed into the house.
Cameron Higgins, 20, and three friends narrowly avoided death when a black Subaru station wagon smashed through the wall of the basement garage on Truro Place, New Plymouth, where they were socialising just before 10pm.
‘‘My friend and I were sitting on the couch when next minute we heard a really loud crash – that was the car coming through the fence,’’ Higgins said.
‘‘I looked at my friend, he looked at me, then everything went black. I felt my head get pushed forwards, and my friend and I were under a car. I was able to drag myself out, but he was trapped.’’
Higgins was covered in cuts and bruises, some of which were caused as he struggled to escape.
‘‘I crawled out, I don’t know how I did it. My friends helped to drag me out. I found a gap and somehow just fitted through it.’’
He was bleeding from a wound on his head that needed stitching.
While St John paramedics treated Higgins, firefighters were using hydraulic tools and a rescue airbag to lift the car off his friend, who was taken to hospital with serious injuries including third degree burns from the vehicle’s exhaust, broken bones, a head injury, grazes and cuts.
Cameron was able to return home on Saturday morning, and his friend was also discharged. The car driver remained in hospital in a stable condition, a Te Whatu Ora Taranaki spokesperson said.
On Saturday, Cameron’s mum, who asked not to be named, said she was still coming to terms with how close she came to losing her son.
‘‘He’s lucky to be alive, it was such a freak accident,’’ she said. ‘‘You’d think you would be safe sitting in the shed having a couple of beers, don’t you? You don’t expect a car to come flying thorough the side of the wall.’’
The station wagon had travelled right through the basement and smashed its way out through the garage door and hit a parked car outside.
Cameron’s father, Wayne Higgins, was weary after a sleepless night supporting his son in hospital.
‘‘It’s only hitting home now, how close it was. I’m shocked, I don’t know how anyone survived it to be honest,’’ he said.
‘‘I’d like to know the speed, it must have been horrendous, it’s amazing no-one was killed.’’
The crash was the third serious accident on that stretch of road in a year, and he wanted the New Plymouth District Council to take action to slow traffic.
‘‘We get people flying up at 100kmh up that road, I’d like to see speed humps there.’’
A power pole was replaced four months ago, just metres from the house, after another crash, and another vehicle had hit a tree beside it within the last year, he said.
Janet Sullivan, who lives next door, said she had a very sleepless night after the crash.
‘‘I was in bed and I heard a very loud bang, and I went to investigate.’’
The car had smashed her fence, narrowly missing her house.
She got a shock when she saw the vehicle sticking out of the garage on the other side of her neighbour’s house.
‘‘I was feeling weak, and my legs were shaking,’’ she said.
Another neighbour helped her walk back home, she said.
‘‘I got about an hour’s sleep.’’ A tow truck driver removed both vehicles on Saturday.
A police media spokesperson said the officers were called about 9.47pm on Friday.
A Hato Hone St John media spokesperson said three ambulances and a clinical manager attended.