Woman trapped under van

A woman is in a serious condition and considered lucky to be alive after spending up to four hours trapped beneath her crashed Royal Mail van in remote hills west of Hastings yesterday.

Emergency services were alerted to the crash just before 5.15pm, and a Fire Service rescue crew and the Lowe Corporation Rescue Helicopter went to the scene off upper Mangleton Rd, near Kereru, between the Whakarara and Ruahine ranges and about a 40-minute drive for the rescue crews from Hastings.

Fire Service senior firefighter Mike Adie said that when crews heard en route that the 60-year-old woman had been trapped for several hours they were prepared for "the worst".

When they arrived, almost at the same time as the rescue helicopter, they found the woman trapped beneath the late-model van which was in shade in a "lush green" paddock after a drop of about 20m off the road.

Local farmers were about to lift the vehicle, but the Fire Service began a controlled lift using airbags and the advice of paramedics to limit deterioration of the woman's injuries.

She was able to talk with her rescuers as the vehicle was being lifted.

Mr Adie said a woman, apparently from one of the few farms further up the no-exit road had noticed the damage to the fenceline and other signs of a crash earlier in the afternoon, but saw no one and thought the situation had been resolved. But becoming concerned soon afterwards that the mail and milk had not arrived, she returned to the scene and discovered the crash.

The rescue helicopter landed in the paddock where the van had landed, and the woman was flown to hospital in Hastings.

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