Two in hospital after car flips on closed Manawatū Gorge highway

Friday, 17 July 2020

Black marks on the road show where a car landed after flipping over a barrier at the Manawatū Gorge.

The wreckage is gone, the glass cleared, but the mangled concrete barriers that took the force of a car hitting it at high speed remain at the entrance to the shut Manawatū Gorge highway.

There are skid marks leading up to the site of the impact from other vehicles doing burnouts, but none showing brake marks.

Two people were in the car on the Ashhurst side of the hill, just past the entrance to the gorge walk car park, at 6.30am on Friday when the car smashed into the barrier, leaving behind six crippled concrete bollards.

The car flipped over the barrier, landing on its side.

The driver went through a 'road closed' sign and two sets of cones before crashing into the barriers.

* Three injured as car flips in crash in rural Manawatū

Concrete slabs at the shut entrance to the Manawatū Gorge road have crumbled after a car smashed into them.

The passenger was hanging from their seatbelt over the driver, who lay on the roadside, Palmerston North acting senior fire station officer Royce Tatham said.

The road to the walking track was closed on Friday as police conducted a scene examination.

The Ashhurst volunteer fire brigade was first on the scene and assessed the injured pair before a rescue truck from Palmerston North arrived, cutting them from the vehicle.

Firefighters sheared the roof of the car off on one side, peeling the metal back to free them.

Concrete barriers stopping cars driving into the gorge have been pushed back by the force of the impact.

A St John paramedic approached the occupants through the back of the car, checking their injuries before taking them to Palmerston North Hospital.

One patient was in critical condition, a spokeswoman for the MidCentral District Health Board said. The other was in a stable condition.

The road was closed at the intersection of state highways 3 and 52 as the police serious crash unit conducted a scene examination. It was reopened after noon.

Tatham said the car's modern construction meant its front was not crushed. The impact instead spread across the vehicle.

This prevented the engine from being pushed back into the driver and passenger seats.

Choosing a vehicle with a high safety rating could be the difference between walking away from a crash and death, said Mark Stockdale, principal adviser for regulations for the New Zealand Automobile Association.

“There has been a real change in the safety design and that is why they’ve been able to survive a crash like this.”