About a third of the way there, we came upon a horrific car accident. We arrived about 5-10 minutes after the accident had happened, and neither firemen nor paramedics were present. We saw one small SUV that was demolished, and a large RV that whose front-right was crumpled, but was otherwise in good condition. We saw one female lying on her side on the side of the road with nobody tending to her; she was not moving. Another female was about 30 feet away and a couple people were around her. A few other people were calling the paramedics. We parked our car to see if we could help. It's in these situations that I wish I had some sort of medical training. Shweth and I largely felt helpless to do anything. We had a picnic blanket, orange juice, and snacks to offer, but not much else.
We first walked to the girl with people around her. The driver of the RV was a 45-ish year old European - probably Dutch - and had his family with him. He was crying and inconsolable, and it was clear he knew he was at fault. He and his sons were pacing back and forth. The female (she was Asian, as were her travel companions) had a blanket over her, her face was bleeding in a few places, and she looked out of it. But, she looked like she would live.
The driver asked us if everyone was out of the other car. We thought "yes" because we had seen the other girl on the ground, but when we started walking over to her, we saw a male still in the crumpled car (drivers side) with his head against the steering wheel. By that time a couple people were tending to him, and a couple firemen had arrived. We then walked over to the second female, and she was in bad shape. Her right leg was badly burned. She was breathing and making a moaning sound with every breath. She was unresponsive and clearly in an unimaginable amount of pain. Some people were pouring water on her leg, and firemen were tending to her. Shweth and i shuttled water back and forth from a nearby cafe, and then held a blanket up to keep the wind out while firemen cared for the woman. I couldn't see what they were doing for her, but I had a clear view of the mangled car. All I could see was a man's hair, as his head was against the steering wheel.
Eventually firemen arrived with the jaws of life. It took them about 90 minutes to pry the man out of the car, and once they got him on a stretcher the man moved his leg, giving everyone some some hope. Two rescue helicopters arrived (we were at least an hour's drive from Queenstown) along with an American doctor. They started IVs for the man in the car (prior to getting him out of the car) and the burnt woman, and started putting gauze on the woman's wounds.
As others gave testimony to the police, I learned what happened. The RV was making a turn too fast from the left lane (New Zealanders drive on the left side) and had to cross the oncoming lane's traffic. The other car was coming in the opposite direction and they crashed almost head on. The driver of the RV tried to remove the people in the other car but couldn't. I think he saw they were burning and got a fire extinguisher and used it (I'm unclear on whether this happened before or after the female were removed from the car). A local man broke the rear window after many tries (he broke it either with the extinguisher or with his hands), and pulled the girl in the back seat out (easily, indicating she was not wearing her seatbelt) and put her on the side of the road (this was the burnt girl). He was also able to get the other girl (passenger seat) out ok.
Shweth and I stayed about two hours until we could be of no more use. We found out a couple days later that the burnt girl died and the driver was still in critical condition. We also learned that the guilty driver would be charged, have his passport taken, and sent to trial. The most likely outcome is that he will pay a punitive amount to the family of the deceased, but not face jail time (beyond the couple weeks he'll stay in NZ before the trial, presumably in jail but I'm not sure).
Accidents involving tourists, especially during the high tourist season, are common in NZ. The combination of left-side driving, powerful rental cars, and generally bad driving are the causes. A police officer told us that prior to 2007, if you were Chinese and had a drivers license, you most likely bribed an official and didn't take a driving test. So many Chinese get into accidents.
Before the accident we had been listening to a podcast called the Art of Char featuring a couple of douchebags (sorry to use that language, mom, but it's the most apt descriptor). Afterward we obviously couldn't listen to it. We felt very small and petty for worrying about life's little things.
We continued to Milford, which I'll pick up in my next blog post.
A few random photos:
Jenny, you'll recognize my mess. I've gotten slightly better at keeping things organized since Mexico, but not much. This photo is post-cleaning up.
Damn man. Wow.
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