A suspected drink-driver drove head-on into an ambulance in Tokoroa last night - and was treated by the shaken St John officer he crashed into.
Constable Greg Draper said the man's station wagon was written off in the crash, which involved three vehicles.
It began when the 44-year-old went through
a stop sign and struck a car carrying two young women, pushing it to the side of the road.
It then crossed the road to hit an ambulance at a roundabout about 100m away.
There were no patients in the ambulance.
Draper said the sole-charge ambulance officer was shaken but immediately got out of the ambulance to treat the driver of the station wagon.
"He was just making sure everything was good with this guy."
The St John officer was taken by a second ambulance for a check-up at Tokoroa hospital, where the suspected drink-driver, who suffered only cuts, was having blood taken for an alcohol reading.
Laura Clark, 16, was in the first vehicle hit.
She said it was terrifying watching the car drive through the stop sign to hit her vehicle in the side.
She was grateful the driver hit the ambulance because it "stopped him from going any further".
"It could have done a lot more damage if he had been able to go on."
