Car careers into river

Press, 5 July 1977, Page 1

Car careers into river

A woman escaped uninjured from her car yesterday morning after it plunged into the floodswollen Heathcote River and was swept downstream before jamming under a bridge. (Picture at left).

Mrs Z. E. Cooper, of Stanton Crescent, Hoon Hay, was driving to work along Cashmere Road near Princess Margaret Hospital about 4 a.m. when the accident occurred.

She swerved to avoid an obstacle and her car careered out of control into the river. It was carried for some distance by the fast-moving current, until it came to rest against the Ferniehurst Street bridge. She clambered out a rear door on to the boot, and from there pulled herself up on to the bridge.

She was picked up by a milkman and taken to a nearby civil defence station.

Mrs Cooper said that she had had plenty of time to think about what was happening. “I yelled my head off, and honked the hom before the front of the car went under. The front doors wouldn't open.

"I kept on wondering what would happen. Nobody saw me go into the river.

“It kept sort of floating and bumping along. But once it hit the bridge I realised I was all right.”

All that could be seen of the car yesterdav was the boot and part of the rear window. It is not insured.