The woman who bore the brunt of the impact of the crash and the driver were airlifted to Dunedin Hospital, she said.
The woman suffered “quite serious injuries, but we are optimistic that with her strong will and gritty determination she will come out okay.
“Luckily we were going quite slow through the gorge, as we could see and feel how slippery the roads were.
“But we cannot state this enough, once we fell out of the van, the roads were an ice skating rink.”
Fire and Emergency New Zealand reported the crash happened just before 4pm and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency said the highway was closed near Round Hill Rd from 4.05pm.
Two Fenz crews were sent from Milton and one each from Waitahuna and Lawrence, a spokesman said.
One person had to be freed from the van, he said.
By 6.50pm on Saturday, State Highway 8 was closed between Johnstone Rd, south of Waitahuna, and SH1, near Milton, and by 8.30pm the police serious crash unit was at the site investigating, Waka Kotahi said.
The crash happened about 30 minutes after another on the Manuka Gorge Highway, when a car went into a ditch near Falla Burn Rd about 3.30pm. One person suffered minor injuries, a police spokesman said.
Police yesterday could not confirm the number of crashes in the southern region due to ice, but a spokesman said police responded to multiple weather-related incidents over the weekend, “including crashes where weather conditions may have been a factor”.
He urged people to drive to the conditions and watch their following distances.
