An elderly driver suffered a medical event moments before accelerating, causing a vehicle to spin and a bus to crash on its side, police say.
The 82-year-old Milton man remained in Dunedin Hospital in a stable condition last night, following the crash yesterday on the Southern Motorway.
He was driving a Nissan car on the motorway, near Barnes Dr, when ''he had a medical event of some sort, which caused him to put his foot hard on the accelerator'', Senior Sergeant Dave Scott, of Dunedin, said.
The man's car twice slammed into another vehicle and the second shunt caused one vehicle to spin around.
The man's car then slammed into an Alpine Connexions minibus, carrying four passengers and a driver.
The Fire Service helped to extricate the elderly driver.
Traffic was delayed on both sides of the motorway.
Seven patients were treated at the scene for minor injuries, but only the elderly driver was taken to Dunedin Hospital, St John southern communications manager Ian Henderson said.
A spokesman for the Wanaka-based bus company said, ''No-one was injured, so we were happy about that.''
