David Eagle has no recollection of the moment he was struck by a car in Te Puna, smashing his head into the windscreen, breaking multiple bones in his body and busting his face.
Mr Eagle, 33, was struck from behind while walking from his car on Te Puna Station Rd around 6pm Saturday night.
After stepping out on to the road to wave down his partner as she drove to drop him his car keys, he was hit from behind.
His partner had dropped him at his vehicle on Te Puna Station Rd but when he realised he'd left his keys in her car, he started walking towards her house. His partner, realising she had the keys, had meanwhile turned around and driven back to Mr Eagles.
"I remember everything except the accident. I was making sure I was well off the road [ ... until I saw her car]. She remembers seeing me. I stepped into the road. She saw it happen," he said.
The first people on the scene were able to support Mr Eagle, who suffered massive trauma to his body, until the ambulance arrived. He remained unconscious until he was almost at the hospital.
"The person that hit [me] was apparently a nurse and my partner was the second on the scene. And the third person there was a doctor, apparently.
"The cop said if I'd been a fraction higher on the impact ... if my head had been even a half a foot higher, I'd be dead," he said.
Mr Eagle suffered considerable injuries, including two broken bones in his right leg, a chunk out of his elbow, two split lips, facial grazes, a chip out of his left hip and fractures to his left shoulder, leg and ankle.
He had surgery on Sunday afternoon. His mother, Jenny Eagle, said nursing her son in hospital had not been a relaxing way to spend Mother's Day.
"He's very lucky to be alive.
"I think the doctors and police are quite amazed he's still alive. He'll be off work for six months," she said. "[And] the car was a write-off, I heard."
Mr Eagle had been wearing jeans and a dark t-shirt when he was struck on the rural road just after dark.
He said he accepted blame for the accident.
Senior Sergeant Ian Campion, the officer in charge of road policing in the Western Bay, described the damage to the vehicle as extensive.
