A woman has survived a car crash in which the power pole her car hit snapped in half and the car's steering wheel ended up in the front passenger's seat.
Sergeant Tony Woodbridge, of Oamaru, said the 38-year-old woman was lucky to survive the crash on Biggs Rd, Pukeuri, just before 7pm on Monday.
Sgt Woodbridge said the crash occurred in a 100kmh zone on a road he felt he could take safely at 70kmh. He said it was still unclear how the woman's car came off the road.
The woman would normally have had her children with her at the time of the crash, but that day they were at a friend's house.
''The power pole ended up where her legs should have been and she went inside on [to it].
''She doesn't have a scratch on her. She knows how lucky she is. I told her not to buy a Lotto ticket - she's used up all her luck.''
Another crash involving power lines near Pukeuri happened early yesterday. At 4.50am, a 37-year-old woman lost control of her car on State Highway 1 and crashed into a power pole strainer post, causing an outage to about 20 properties in the area. Power was restored to all properties about seven hours later.
Sgt Woodbridge said a truck then snagged one of the wires and dragged the strainer post across the lane.
There were no injuries to either driver.
Inquiries into both crashes were ongoing and Network Waitaki would pursue costs for the damage to their equipment.
