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A car fell down a 25 m bank with five people in the road into a popular swimming hole.
The five occupants of a car that sank 25 meters off a shore on the Coromandel have been described as “incredibly lucky.”
Emergency services were called for the accident on Kauaeranga Valley Rd near Thames in Coromandel around 5.10pm Sunday.
When the Thames Volunteer Fire Brigade arrived, they found the car submerged upside down, but the five people in it had managed to get out of the car with the help of some locals.
Fire Chief Greg Rendall described the car’s occupants as “incredibly lucky.”
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He said that some locals had seen the car go off the road and had managed to reach the occupants to help them escape.
When firefighters arrived, they managed to access the car down a path through the bush and Rendall said they found the people sitting on a ledge in the creek.
He said the road down was quite slippery, but they managed to remove two of the occupants, while three had injuries that meant they were unable to walk and had to be pulled out by the rescue helicopter.
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The five occupants of the car were found sitting on a ledge in the creek.
Rendall wasn’t sure if the carts full of youths were local, but said people often went out on that road to use some swimming spots.
He encouraged people to drive under the conditions and wear seat belts.
A spokesman for St John said that of the five patients, one was treated for serious injuries and airlifted to Waikato hospital.
Two were treated for moderate injuries and one minor, and all three were taken by ambulance to Thames Hospital.
The fifth person was not injured.
