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Home / Northern Advocate

Crash survivor wants to find mystery helper

By Joseph Aldridge
Northern Advocate·
9 Jul, 2011 04:00 AM3 mins to read

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A man who narrowly escaped death when his car ran into three wandering horses is looking for the good samaritan who helped him then disappeared.
Kerry Pearce is lucky to be alive after hitting three horses at high speed on a dark country road three weeks ago.
Incredibly, Mr Pearce escaped the accident with only superficial cuts but his car was written off and all three horses died.
Mr Pearce said he was travelling at about 90km/h on Port Marsden Highway and dipped his lights as he passed another car.
"Before I had a chance to put my full lights on again, I've got two horses' heads on my bonnet."
The first two horses rolled across the bonnet, smashed the windscreen, flipped over onto the roof then onto the road, while the third horse hit the car's front guard and rolled down the driver's side of the car, Mr Pearce said.
"I honestly thought it was all over at that point," he said.
Mr Pearce turned on his hazard lights and emerged from his car with blood streaming down his face.
The car that had passed in the other direction stopped and a woman in her "mid to late 20s" ran back and offered to bandage Mr Pearce's wounds, he said.
"She was calm as. She had this nice white jacket on and she ended up getting blood on the sleeve and it didn't bother her at all. It definitely helped having her there because I was bleeding quite profusely."
The woman told Mr Pearce she had recently done a first aid course and confidently bandaged his head and helped him until the ambulance arrived.
Her partner blocked off the road so oncoming vehicles did not crash into Mr Pearce's car or the horses which were strewn across the road.
Mr Pearce said he did not get the chance to find out the woman's name but promised to take her and her partner out for a drink when he recovered.
"I gave her my business card on the night but I don't know if she lost it," he said.
Mr Pearce, who works at Sport Northland, hopes the woman will ring him so he can thank her.
Mr Pearce was off work for two weeks after the accident and has been unable to collect insurance on his car because he only had third party insurance.
The horses' owner said the horses had got onto the road by jumping a fence and he was not liable for the damage to the car, Mr Pearce said.

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