Driving to the conditions saved a couple from a 100-metre drop after their vehicle rolled on a Banks Peninsula road at the weekend.
The couple were travelling towards Akaroa on Flea Bay Rd on Sunday afternoon.
The road is a very narrow stretch of gravel on a hillside with room for only one car to get through at a time.
The driver hit a 30cm rock in a culvert on the roadside.
The impact caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle, sending it up the bank and rolling it on to its side.
Akaroa Volunteer Fire Brigade station officer Toni Williams said the couple were very lucky.
There was only about half a metre between their station wagon and the edge of the steep bank, which drops 100m.
“If they had gone down, the outcome would have been very different,” Williams said.
“Driving to the conditions is what saved their lives.”
Williams compared Flea Bay Rd to a farm track and said it was critical motorists pay attention and slow down when driving on hillside roads around Banks Peninsula.
The incident was also attended by police and an Akaroa Health primary response team who treated the vehicle’s two occupants for minor injuries.