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Tom Lee / Stuff
Alyssa Joe, 18, was most seriously injured when the car in which she and her four friends were traveling sank 25 meters off a cliff near the Thames.
Sunbathing, swimming, and plummeting off a 25m cliff – it’s a well-swimming excursion Alyssa Joe and four high school friends will never forget.
“I’m happy to be alive and keep moving,” says the 18-year-old. Stuff from his hospital bed after the near-tragedy on Kauaeranga Valley Rd, near Thames.
His Sunday had started like any other.
She and her friends – Fergus McMillan, Bella Claire, Troy Cutriss and her boyfriend James Hazleman – drove to one of her favorite swimming spots on the Coromandel and arrived around 2pm.
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They spent the afternoon in typical fashion: swimming, sunbathing, and playing games before packing up and heading home.
It was a return trip they had made hundreds of times before.
But this time it was different.
Supplied
The car that fell off a 25-meter bench with Joe and four friends inside.
On their way back down the gravel road, driving at what Joe described as “normal speed,” they came to a sharp turn with some force.
The rear wheels slipped and the car crashed into a barrier.
As they plummeted down the 25-meter steep bank, the car capsized four times and landed on its roof in the river.
“We were all just screaming,” Joe recalls.
Tom Lee / Stuff
Joe has to place plates on one of her ankles, but says it feels fine.
“The driver was pushed into the water, so half the car was in the water.”
Joe says the car started to fill with smoke hanging from his seat belts.
A broken window on the front passenger side was the only way to escape and they all made it out.
The adrenaline rush had kicked in at that point and everyone was happy to be talking and confident, she says.
“We sat looking at the water, hugging each other a bit.”
About 20 minutes later, they saw Joe’s waterproof phone and called for help.
Locals also approached them and ripped off their shirts to help cover Joe and his friends and press on their wounds.
Thames Volunteer Fire Department / SUPPLIED
Emergency services prepare Joe to be pulled out of the ravine.
Joe had the most serious injuries of the bunch, including a broken back and ankle, but says his back was recovering well.
The rescue helicopter took her out of the area and traveled by ambulance to Thames Hospital and then to Waikato Hospital.
Getting dragged was probably the scariest thing, says Joe.
“It was terrible, I hated it.
“He was so tall … I think I got most of my fear out of that and then out of anything else.”
He had to undergo surgery on his ankle to place plates on him and says the entire group suffered “many cuts and bruises and severe burns to the seat belt.”
However, Joe is optimistic and focuses on how lucky everyone is to be alive.
His Christmas plans remain unchanged. He hopes to be discharged from the hospital before Christmas Day, but thinks his New Year’s Eve plans would be a lot smoother.
“The New Year is definitely off.”
Of the four remaining passengers, three were taken to Thames Hospital and released on Monday and one was not injured.
