Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt had turned back from a planned trip to meet the producer of an international blockbuster film when he was seriously injured in a car accident.
Mr Shadbolt was travelling with two passengers when his mayoral car, a Holden Commodore, failed to take a bend, rolled and
landed on its roof.
The accident happened on Friday night 1km south of the Southland town of Winton.
He suffered fractured vertebrae and a bruised lung, while one of his passengers was treated for minor injuries. Mr Shadbolt is expected to remain in Southland Hospital until Friday.
He plans to speak publicly about the ordeal from hospital tomorrow.
Mr Shadbolt had been travelling north from Invercargill to visit Murray Francis, the Wanaka-based New Zealand producer for the Warner Brothers' movie 10,000BC that is being filmed in Central Otago. "He congratulated me for bringing another film down to the southern region, and he said, 'I'm coming up to shake your hand'," Mr Francis said.
"All I know it was about 8pm and he said, 'I'm coming over', and I said, 'Ooh, well, we're going home'. He never made it to me."
The accident happened as Mr Shadbolt was driving back toward Invercargill.
Police are refusing to give details of their crash investigation, which is expected to take up to six weeks.
Invercargill City Council chief executive Richard King said Mr Shadbolt had full personal use of the mayoral car, but when the accident occurred he was on mayoral business.
The car was written off.
Mr King understood Mr Shadbolt was going to see if there was any work for Invercargill businesses in the filming of 10,000BC.
