A man is in critical condition in Dunedin Hospital after the four-wheel-drive vehicle he was in rolled 50m down the side of a hill in the Catlins.
Emergency services were called to a farm near Papatowai about 1pm yesterday, to a man trapped in a vehicle at the bottom of a hill.
Senior Constable Murray Hewitson, of Owaka, said there was one person in the four-wheel-drive when it crashed. The vehicle stopped in a gully between two hills, Snr Const Hewitson said.
Because of the location and the distance the vehicle rolled a helicopter was needed to winch the man to safety and transport him to hospital, he said.
It was not known how long the man had been at the bottom of the hill.
St John ambulance staff and a crew from the Papatowai Volunteer Rural Fire Force also attended the crash.
