Bystanders rushed to help a female driver after her car flipped on an Invercargill main thoroughfare yesterday.
Builder Mike Stone said he was driving south on Dee St with colleague Graham Sinclair about 10.10am when the woman's car landed on its side right in front of them.
She had just turned from a side street and was heading north on Dee St when her Suzuki Ignus went through a gap between sizeable cabbage trees in the centre plot, bounced off the kerb, bounced back into one of the trees then flipped, he said.
"I screeched to a halt and so did the driver of the truck in the lane beside me. I stuck the hazard lights on, then went to see what I could do to help.''
Mr Stone said he climbed on to the car and opened the driver's door while Mr Sinclair climbed inside to help the woman out.
"She didn't say much. I think she was going into shock,'' Mr Stone said.
The woman, the sole occupant of the car, was helped across the road and cared for by staff and passers-by until emergency services arrived.
A St John spokesman said the car's occupant was transported to hospital by ambulance with moderate injuries.
Mr Stone said the woman was "lucky, or unlucky''.
"She was unlucky to crash, but lucky there was a clear space on our side of the road. If it had been a few seconds later, my vehicle and the truck would have hit her.''
Constable Tom Ussher, of Invercargill, said the cause of the crash was not yet known and inquiries were continuing.
