Driver pulled from car in river
A sliver of air kept a driver alive long enough for bystanders to pull him out of a car submerged in a Coromandel river.
The man, in his early thirties, careened out of his driveway, flew through flax bushes and plunged 6 metres into the Manaia River yesterday morning.
Passersby raced to his rescue, Coromandel Fire Chief John Walker said.
‘‘He went down about 6 metres and ended up on the wheels and the tide was in so he was sitting in the car – he had about 6 inches of air at the top of his cab.
‘‘If the tide had been in more, he most likely would have perished.’’
When firefighters arrived at the scene on Marae Rd on the peninsula’s western coast around 10.15am, the man was lying on the bank, Walker said.
‘‘There were quite a few bystanders and they’d got him out of the car as it’s very hard to open the car door from the inside.’’
Both airbags in the small Toyota 4WD had been set off inside the car.
It also appeared that the impact caused the man to hit his head on the front windscreen.
‘‘The windscreen was broken, so he’s had a reasonable thump.’’
The gateway to the man’s home was directly opposite the river that runs along the road leading to the local marae.
‘‘So either he lost his attention or he just drove straight over through the flaxes into the creek.’’
The man was taken by road ambulance through to Thames Hospital.
‘‘He wasn’t too bad.’’