Driver may have been on wrong side of road before serious three-car Queenstown crash, witness says

January 11, 2020

A witness says one car was on the wrong side of the road before the head-on smash.

One of Queenstown's busiest roads was closed all morning, during a peak tourist period, after a horror three-car crash that's left one man fighting for his life in hospital.

State Highway 6 was in chaos this morning, after the crash at 7.30am. A car had been thrown onto its side in the middle of the road, the driver trapped by the impact of a violent crash.

Amid the mayhem, Fire and Emergency NZ crews came to the rescue, cutting him out of the wreck.

The crash happened on the corner of Frankton Rd and Middleton Rd, completely blocking State Highway 6A - which is the main route to the city.

It left traffic backing up for kilometres, with the only alternative a 30-minute detour through the hills at Arthur's Point.

Over the last 12 months, the road toll has started to come down, with 353 fatal crashes recorded in 2019 compared to 377 the year before.

The holiday season saw a reduction too, with only six deaths recorded in the official period between Christmas Eve and January 3, compared to nine the year before.

While the cause of this crash is still being investigated, a witness told 1 NEWS he saw the injured man's car cross the centre line and crash into a 4WD coming the other way.

Miraculously, no one else was injured.

But both police and Fire and Emergency NZ are so far refusing to confirm the witness's account.

"I can't comment on that, what I found on arrival was a vehicle on the left-hand side of the road, on its side and one person trapped," Fire and Emergency NZ's Bobby Lamont told 1 NEWS.

The trapped driver was airlifted to Dunedin Hospital in a serious condition and admitted to intensive care.

The quick work of the emergency crews helped save his life, stopping this horror smash from turning deadly.

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