Trapped woman: I thought no one would ever stop

A woman who spent 11 hours trapped in her car beside a road would have died from hypothermia if she had been left there for another hour, her rescuers were told.

The woman, in her 40s, was pale and cold and started shaking as carpenters from Max Mackenzie Builders stopped on State Highway 41 and ran to her aid, covering her in their jackets to warm her up.

The group of Taumarunui builders were on their way to a building site near Taupo about 8am yesterday when they spotted a Toyota Vivi.

Site foreman Ricky Balloch said they pulled over to see what had happened to the crashed vehicle, expecting to find a dead person.

“We got close to the car and said, ‘Hello, is anyone there?’ and we heard this real faint ‘Help me’,” said Balloch.

When they saw the woman, who was in her 40s, she still had her seatbelt on but her left arm was broken so could not free herself.

“She was freezing, we got our jackets out of the van and piled as much on as we could. And just kept her calm really and called for help.”

He said given how cold she was, she was extremely coherent and able to communicate very well.

Balloch said they called 111 and tried to warm the woman.

Temperatures fell to about -4C on Sunday night as the woman sat and counted 26 cars drive past in the dark.

“She was unbelievably grateful. She couldn’t thank us enough.

“She said, ‘I thought no one would ever stop’ — because she had been there since 9pm at night.”

The woman had been to Hamilton then dropped a friend off in Taupo before heading home to Taumarunui when her car slipped on ice.

St John paramedics, firefighters and the Greenlea Rescue Helicopter arrived at the scene and the woman was flown to Waikato Hospital.

A hospital spokeswoman said the woman was in a serious but stable condition last night.