He came over the rise, their car had spun out into his lane... he thought 'this is it'

Rotorua's Ian Anderson has a deep bruise and a cracked sternum from his seatbelt but he's not complaining - it saved his life.
The 51-year-old Rotorua man was driving home from Auckland on Tuesday night when his Ford Courier ute collided with a Ford Probe at Maramarua.
The three teenagers in the Ford Probe - Mary Jane Kingi-Te Purei, Te Maungarongo Te Kuiri Kingi and Tiata Maxwell, all 18, were killed in the crash.
Police believe the Probe driver, Ms Kingi-Te Purei, lost control on the 85km/h bend and the car spun into the path of Mr Anderson's eastbound ute.
"There was a bit of drizzle. I can remember coming over a little bit of a rise and looking ahead to the corner," Mr Anderson said.
"For some reason I just picked up a strip of light in the middle of the road. It took me a split second to realise something was not right. The next thing I realised it was a car in my lane."
The strip of light Mr Anderson saw was the side of the car's headlight, which was facing the centre white line.
"I just jumped on the brakes and tried to steer into the gutter but it was wet and it was just history.
"There was no time. It was dark, they had a dark car.
"I thought - this is it.
"I hit them right fair in the middle, between the front and rear wheels, classic T-bone."
Mr Anderson braced himself so hard against the steering wheel he bent the sides of it down towards the dashboard.
His seatbelt saved his life, Mr Anderson said.
"I'd be dead if it wasn't for [the seatbelt]." His next thought was to get out of his ute in case a vehicle coming up from behind crashed into his ute.
"I thought I've gotta get out of here. "I hit the hazard lights and tried to get my door open but it was jammed so I got across and got out the passenger's door.
A car and a truck had stopped behind Mr Anderson's ute, and trucks approaching from the opposite direction had stopped too.
People from those vehicles went up to the Ford Probe to see if they could help its passengers.
"I could hardly breathe by that time. I was just leaning up on the ute," Mr Anderson said.
Emergency services arrived quickly and he was flown to Middlemore Hospital in Auckland. He was discharged on Thursday.
He said he felt "extremely lucky" to have walked away from the crash but was saddened by the "waste" of the lives of the three teenagers.
He said he didn't blame anyone for what happened, even after learning their car had been stopped doing 130km/h west of Gisborne earlier that day.
"There's been too much blame.
"It was just a series of stupid mistakes. Everybody's done stupid things.
"They didn't wake up in the morning and decide they were going to try and kill me."
The stretch of SH2, between Pokeno and the turnoff to Thames, is known as the "unforgiving highway".
Thirty-one people have died and 56 have been badly hurt in crashes on it in the past seven years.
- additional reporting APN & News Media and NZPA