Driver had to fight his way out of submerged car

A fence railing missed Nathan Callander's chest by centimetres. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Nathan Callander was on the way to start his day's work on his parents' Ngahinapouri fertiliser farm when his life flashed before his eyes.

Mr Callander had left his Te Awamutu home and his wife and two children about 20 minutes earlier when a driver tried to overtake him on a corner, just down the road from his parents' home on March 28.

The driver, 16-year-old Kelvin Anthony McDonnell, also from Te Awamutu, lost control of his Toyota Corona on the loose metal on the right-hand side of the road in an 80km/h zone.

The teenager ploughed into the side of Mr Callander's 2008 Ford Ranger ute, sending Mr Callander crashing through a fence, submerging the vehicle driver's side down in a small creek.

Mr McDonnell also went through a fence but his car plunged several metres down a culvert on the opposite side of the road - somersaulting over the creek where it landed on its roof.

Mr Callander's head was underwater and he was still wearing his seatbelt. He didn't realise at the time that a fence railing had pierced the right headlight, his car battery and the firewall before it went through his dashboard and through the rear window - missing his chest by centimetres.

"I was still conscious. I undid the seatbelt, thankfully it undid, I pushed the passenger door open and climbed out," he said.

"I went to investigate the other young guy to see if he was all right but there was no sign of life."

Emergency services arrived but Mr McDonnell died at the scene.

Mr Callander noticed he had no skin left on his left arm. He went to Waikato Hospital, realising he had had a very lucky escape.

"I don't think about it too much these days but I went to the wreckers a few days later to get my keys and saw that my speedo was stuck on 85km/h."

Last year 14 of the 41 fatal collisions in the Waikato involved young drivers either breaching their graduated licences or holding no licence - this included one triple and three double-fatality crashes.

Mr Tooman said the accident highlighted one of the issues highway patrol officers were seeing too much of.

"That's speed - the other two are booze and belts," he said. "Stick with the basics, if you are going to drink don't drive. Keep your speed down... and if you do your seatbelt up you might live."

Mr Tooman said fatigue was a problem, particularly after lunch, when police were attending increasingly more crashes due to drivers becoming tired.

THE NUMBERS

* 34 deaths on Waikato roads this year.

* 31deaths at the same time last year.

* 32 per cent of all crashes in the Waikato involve alcohol.