Neighbours helped rescue the trapped men. Photo / Michael Craig
Young Muna Taunga had little to say.
"My mum's a hero," said the small girl.
And then the story came out.
Last night two cars collided outside the family's Mahunga Drive, Mangere, home, leaving a white Subaru sideways across the centreline and a red Toyota station wagon on the footpath.
Muna's mother Amy Taunga, 32, said she had been watching TV with her three girls when they heard a bang.
Running outside, about 8.20pm, she saw the wreckage strewn across the road.
"There was smoke and sparks, I could smell petrol."
An elderly man was in the driver's seat of the station wagon, trapped behind the steering wheel.
"He was conscious but he was panicking and in shock. I saw the smoke in his car and I knew he needed to get out fast. It didn't look like it was safe.
"I grabbed him around the chest and pulled him out."
Neighbour Suhaib Mohd, 19, was trying to help a man trapped in the Subaru.
"There were no brakes. Just impact. There are no skid marks."
He said the man was trapped by the engine. "We talked to him but he wasn't responding. He wasn't with us."
Mohd said those around him reached for the trapped man, trying to offer comfort. "People touched him to see if he was okay but he started screaming so I told everyone to back off."
A St John spokeswoman said two patients were taken to Mangere Hospital, one with critical injuries, and one seriously injured.
Mangere-Otahuhu Local Board member Carrol Elliott said Mahunga Drive had not been highlighted to the board as a safety problem.
"It's a very straight wide well-lit road. There are about 10 houses on one end of the road and goes into an industrial area. The only hazard on the road are the drivers in the cars. It has a 50kph speed limit which is well signposted on both sides of the road. We have got other hot spots in the area and Auckland Transport are working with the board on those but Mahunga Drive has never come up as a problem," she said.
But Taunga said there had been many accidents on the road.
"It makes us worried for our kids to walk the footpath," she said. "The hardest thing is knowing there have been so many accidents on this road in recent weeks - even though the speed limit here is 50."
- additional reporting Joanne Carroll
