Driver survives plunge

SCARY CRASH: The driver plunged off the Rimutaka Hill Road about 500 metres below the summit on the Hutt Valley side and came to rest in bush about 200m down the ravine.

ROBERT KITCHIN/Dominion Post

THREE-HOUR JOB: Police, fire and ambulance rescue teams help bring the injured man back up to the road.

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A driver who plunged 200 metres off the Rimutaka Hill Road owes his life to the eagle eyes of a passing police officer and motorists.

Suffering from a broken neck and wrist, the Wellington man, 27, was in a stable condition after being flown to Wellington Hospital's emergency department at 1pm yesterday.

The accident was first discovered at 10am, soon after his car smashed through a fence and careered over the steep ravine, when a passing traffic officer saw the broken wire fence and debris on the road.

Other motorists also noticed something glinting in the dense bush far down the slope.

But it was three hours before rescuers got across the rugged terrain, using brute force to push through dense scrub and 1.8-metre-high gorse, and winched the driver back up.

His car left State Highway 2 on a tight bend 500m below the Rimutaka summit on the Hutt Valley side and plunged down the 60-degree slope, hitting the ground then bouncing and rolling before it came to rest upside down in bush.

Firefighter Neil Thompson, who found the injured man inside the upturned car, said the impact could easily have killed him.

The man had been unable to call for help on his cellphone and was "rather glad" to see rescuers.

"He was chatting away but was in pain," Mr Thompson said. "He's a very lucky boy and should go and buy a big pile of Lotto tickets. There's the impact but it's [also] quite possible he could have been there for days, which has happened on that hill before."

In March, the body of Lower Hutt man Stephen Adams, 50, was found in his car months after it had plunged 50m down a Rimutaka ravine. Despite a broken fence, searchers did not find his car because of the terrain and bush.

Yesterday, a team of 10 police, fire and ambulance rescuers pushed through 100 metres of bush, down a sheer seven-metre rockface, then through more gorse before reaching the car. With the local rescue helicopter out of action because of a mechanical fault, they had to manoeuvre the stretchered man up the slope with the aid of a winch. He was then driven to the summit and flown to hospital by the Square Trust rescue helicopter.

"There was no way he could have got out himself, he was trapped," Wellington Free Ambulance operations team manager James McMeekin said.

The Rimutaka Hill Road was closed between 10am and 2pm.