A teenage driver who careered off a cliff in his car says he owes his life to the family he narrowly missed on the rocks below.
Harry Everett, 19, lost control of his car on Colville Rd, north of Coromandel, on April 15.
The car plunged off the road and rolled 15m down a bank, landing within metres of Chrissy Signal, her grandchildren and their parents.
Mr Everett said Ms Signal and her family's quick-thinking saved his life.
"I basically think if she hadn't been there I would have died. I was bleeding and unconscious in the middle of nowhere. No one would have seen me.
"I'm lucky to be alive, and it's because of her."
The teenager was born in Devon, England and has been working at Huntley School in Marton for a gap year since July.
He was on his second day of a two-week road trip around the North Island during the school holidays when he drove off the cliff.
Mr Everett remembered leaving the road, which was slippery after two days of torrential rain, but said everything else was a blur as he slipped in and out of unconsciousness.
He spent one night at Waikato Hospital before he was discharged with just 12 stitches in his forehead and cuts on his arms.
"When you fall metres off a cliff you expect worse than what I've got, really.
"I just remember leaving the road. I was unconscious almost straight away. I had no idea that when I landed there was someone on the rocks. It's scary to think about."
Ms Signal said she had been collecting crabs with the children, aged 3 and 6, when the car suddenly flew over the bank above them.
It landed within 2m of her daughter-in-law, she said.
"She was right there, she was screaming and running and we looked up as the car was flying through the air.
"It was so noisy and then dead quiet at the end - it was just hush quiet."
Ms Signal said she immediately assumed the worst and ran frantically down the sharp rocks so she could get cellphone service to call for help.
Her son rushed to check if the driver was alive.
Ms Signal hated to think what may have happened if she and her family had not been there.
"If we hadn't been there ... he wouldn't have survived the night," she said.
"He was a cool young boy ... he wasn't speeding or anything ... he must have been goggling at the beautiful bay as he was coming around the corner."
By Lauren Priestley of NZME. News Service
