A seriously injured Greytown man trapped beneath an elderly friend's vehicle urged firefighters to rescue him quickly.
The man, in his 50s, was conscious and was ''stuck fast under the car'' when rescuers arrived, said Greytown Fire Brigade Station Officer Josh Rodgers.
''The wheels had rolled over him and he had serioushead and leg injuries and cuts and bruises all over.
''He kept telling us he didn't care how much it hurt and he didn't care about the pain _ just that we had to get him out,'' Mr Rodgers said.
The man had been working in a garden with an elderly friend at a West St property about 1pm yesterday.
The 81-year-old had ''somehow'' reversed his station wagon across vegetable gardens and caught his younger friend behind the vehicle, Mr Rodgers said.
Both the man and the car had gone through a 2m high wooden fence, stopping with the victim pinned underneath.
Mr Rodgers said more than a dozen volunteer Greytown firefighters attended and the man was rapidly freed using hydraulic rescue equipment.
''He was in quite bad pain and was pretty scared but it took less than five minutes to get him out.''
He was treated at the scene before being taken to Wairarapa Hospital where he was yesterday in a serious but stable condition.
Police at the scene found the driver in his nearby home and he was taken to Wairarapa Hospital in a second ambulance, Mr Rodgers said.
According to Wairarapa Hospital duty staff, the elderly man was treated and discharged soon after his arrival.
