Old style transport trashes the new in Motat smash

One of the trams at Motat. Photo / Supplied

It was a clash of old and new at Auckland's Museum of Transport and Technology on Saturday when a packed tram collided with a car.

The tram was making its way through the carpark when it hit the car, which was stopped partway across the tracks. The car was dragged several metres before the tram stopped.

It's Auckland's second tram-versus-car collision in a year. In August, a car was badly damaged after crashing into a tram at Wynyard Quarter.

Motat director Jeremy Hubbard says that in this case the driver of the car was leaving through an entry near Western Springs High School.

"But the most important thing is that nobody was hurt," said Hubbard.

Although no one was injured, the crash made for a dramatic afternoon for many visitors.

Tram passenger Nick Wiles described the collision as "quite surreal".

"It was already very noisy so I just heard it get a little bit louder. I looked out the window and suddenly realised there was a car bouncing off the tram."

Mr Wiles said there was little panic on board as the tram came to a stop.

"It was quite calm. The tram was pretty robust so it didn't seem to be damaged much."

But the car looked "wrecked", Mr Wiles said.

"It got chucked around like a stone," he said. "It's lucky no one was hurt."

"It was the last tram of the day and there was a hold-up of about 20 minutes as we all had to be transferred to another one."