Elderly man crawls to safety after scooter crash

File photo / Thinkstock

An elderly man was forced to crawl out of a Waikato stream and up a steep bank after crashing his scooter in the dark last night.

Te Awamutu Fire Brigade station officer Glenn Anderson said the man, in his late 70s, crashed into the Mangapiko Stream in Te Awamutu after 9pm yesterday.

"Apparently he went down some dark path that he shouldn't have gone down, he lost control and him and the scooter went into the stream and he climbed up the bank to the nearest house," Mr Anderson said.

"It's quite a steep bank -- he lost control of his little scooter and went into the water."

The Fire Service arrived about 10.30pm and hauled the waterlogged scooter out of the eel-infested water with a rope, he said.

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"It was pretty buggered."

The man was later taken to hospital to be checked over for hypothermia.