Vicki Davey of Waihi and her friends, Fay and Julie, were returning to Christchurch at the end of a two-week trip to Stewart Island on March 20 when their vehicle was rear-ended just south of the Ashburton River bridge on Archibald St and pushed into a campervan in front.
The front of the rental car they were travelling in was crushed. Bystanders rushed to their aid before emergency services arrived.
‘‘We are truly grateful to the emergency response personnel, fire, police, ambulance and also (bystander) Jess, who stopped to help us,’’ Vicki said.
‘‘The exemplary staff at Ashburton Hospital were very kind and caring, as was the lovely taxi driver who did a late night trip to drop us at a local motel.
‘‘Ashburton is so lucky to have all these wonderful people in the community, and we will always remember how kind everyone was to us. Thank you,’’ she said.
The crash gridlocked traffic not only along the highway, but on surrounding roads such as South St, Moore St, Havelock St, and even as far away as Chalmers Ave.
In their careers, they worked at an Adelaide hospital as well as Waikato Hospital, Thames Hospital and Whakatane Hospital.
No longer nursing, the trio now live in different locations in New Zealand and Australia. They had met up especially for the trip, Fay over from Adelaide and Julie down from Whakatane.
‘‘We were having an amazing trip, visiting lots of special places and making some wonderful memories, when we stopped to wait in a line of traffic by the Ashburton bridge,’’ Vicki said.
‘‘Next thing, we were hit from behind at speed by a van, and this pushed us into the campervan in front of us and pushed them into another campervan in front of them.
‘‘Sadly, our one-year-old Kia rental car was destroyed. (There are) some ongoing injuries for the three of us but no broken bones,’’ she said.
The following day, the women continued on their trip.
‘‘After a long taxi ride from Ashburton to Christchurch airport the next morning, we managed to get a later flight back to Auckland, battered and bruised but feeling so incredibly lucky to be alive.’’
Ashburton Volunteer Fire Brigade chief Jeff Marshall said four vehicles travelling north had been involved in the crash.
A work van had connected with the Kia, which crashed into the motorhome that, in turn, pushed into another motorhome in front of it.
While the car was a wreck and one of the motorhomes and a work van were towed away, one of the motorhomes was still drivable.
He said it was a reminder for drivers to pay attention to traffic slowing around the bridge area, especially near traffic lights directly north of the bridge.
