Ski-field road survivor still loves the area

Press, 15 August 1978, Page 2

Ski-field road survivor still loves the area

One of two Australian survivors from a c.r which was blown off the Mount Hutt ski-field access road described the accident in which another man died, the Press Association reports. ; Brian Lynch, aged 23, (from Maroubra, Sydney, and! ■Sheryl Ann Robbins, 21, of. (Punchbowl, survived but the; (driver Phillip Leigh Pearson,! (of Queanbeyan, was killed. A wind gust of more than! 180 knots pif ed up their i (car and sent in crashing 300; metres down the side of the (mountain last Thursday. ; Released fron. hospital (yesterday, Mr Lynch said: (“The accident has scared me la bit, but I will definitely go Iski-ing again.” Mr Lynch, a lift operator ! at Mt Hutt ski-field, said that •the other couple had offered him a ride down the mountain. “When we got to the Rakaia Gorge saddle we pulled over to let a Mt Hutt: vehicle pass us, and that was: our mistake,” he said. “Wei

saw that vehicle go on to; two wheels; that was the first; indication of what the wind was really like. “The driver told the girl] to take off her seat-belt and; said he was going to do the ;same. We did not open the doors. In fact, we closed a ; window to stop the wind i getting it. > “The rest happened fast. The wind blew the car over, and we rolled and rolled and rolled.” In the crash the girl spffered a broken leg. She was still in hospital yesterday. Mr Lynch walked to Mt Hutt station. It took him about an hour. “They should never have taken their seat-belts off,” he said. “I think they would have been all right if they had kept them on and the driver shouldn’t have stopped. A lot of it was that he didn’t know .u road.” “I love this place and I ilove ski-ing. and am thinking about buying a house there, so it hasn’t scared me That much,” said Mr Lynch.