![\"Jason](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/jason-kerrison-shared-images-of-his-wrecked-car-after-crashi-COWTCKUIQ5BCPM4ZGAKOHQQLUY.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFrontman of Kiwi band Opshop Jason Kerrison says he is “grateful to be alive” after hitting cattle on State Highway 1 in the Far North last night. <\/p>\n
Kerrison said in a post online he was driving north on SH1 heading into the Mangamukas when cattle appeared in front of his car “with absolutely no warning”.<\/p>\n
“One second the road was clear. The next second they were there. It felt like they had suddenly come straight out from the side of the road or the bush – I honestly don\u2019t know exactly where they came from because it happened so fast,” he wrote. <\/p>\n
The 49-year-old said he was travelling at around 100km\/h, and said “there was simply no time to react. Within a fraction of a second I was on them.” <\/p>\n
“I hit one of the cows, which appeared to die on impact, and from what I can piece together the vehicle carried it another 20 or 30 metres before I ended up being thrown into the bank.” <\/p>\n
Writing the post from Kaitaia Hospital, he shared images of his wrecked car in the ditch, writing that he “genuinely thought, this is it”. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jason Kerrison shared images of his wrecked car after crashing into some cattle on SH1. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n
Kerrison said he checked himself over, and found “there was blood coming from a laceration on my arm, but my legs were working, everything seemed to be moving, and incredibly I was able to get myself out of the vehicle” to call emergency services. <\/p>\n
He added that the damage to the car was “pretty confronting”. <\/p>\n
“The front of the Santa Fe was absolutely destroyed. There was glass everywhere through the passenger side of the cabin and across the passenger seat, yet somehow I had no glass on me and no cuts from it. There was cow blood throughout parts of the vehicle, over some of my clothing and a little on me,” he wrote. <\/p>\n
“Between the airbags, the seatbelt, the engine bay and the structure of that Santa Fe, I genuinely believe that vehicle saved my life.” <\/p>\n
He said it was unclear why the livestock were wandering on the dark state highway in the middle of the night, and that made him “incredibly angry”. <\/p>\n
In the lengthy statement he also thanked police and his family, saying “I don’t know exactly what protected me last night… whatever it was: thank you.” <\/p>\n
“For a fraction of a second last night I genuinely believed I was never going to see any of them again. I’ve never felt anything quite like that.”<\/p>\n
Opshop first gained commercial radio’s attention in 2004, going on to release its debut album which went platinum, while their second album went three-times platinum. <\/p>\n
Their third and final album Until the End of Time also hit No.1 following its release in 2010. <\/p>\n
The 2007 hit Maybe peaked at Number 3 on New Zealand’s charts. <\/p>\n
The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including disappointing scenes after the Warriors\u2019 loss, and Princess Diana\u2019s brother speaks about Harry and Meghan. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Frontman of Kiwi band Opshop Jason Kerrison says he is “grateful to be alive” after hitting cattle on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1081,50,157,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-606889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-accident","tag-animals","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}