“I saw a cyclist in the bicycle lane,” she told the Herald.
The cyclist then decided to move out of the bike lane and into the cycle bay in front of the truck.
“The lights went green, the cyclist was pedalling quite rapidly, and then all of a sudden the truck driver hit the back wheel of the cyclist and she went under.
Sammut repeatedly honked her horn, stopped beside the truck and called emergency services.
“A Waikato Regional Council van was behind the truck. He had stopped, jumped out of the ute very quickly, and I told him I was on the phone to 111.”
The Hamilton woman said the council staff member got on the ground, speaking to the cyclist trapped under the truck.
“She was alive ... I saw her legs.”
Sammut waited for the police to turn up, spoke to them and carried on, shaken, to work.
The cyclist’s sister told the Herald yesterday she was extremely fortunate to survive, but her body was left badly broken after being crushed by the truck.
“Her brain is okay, but everything else is pretty messed up.”
Her injuries include her pelvis being “split in half”, all the skin and muscle being torn off her left arm, two spinal fractures, at least two skull fractures, fractures in both wrists and ankles and several broken ribs.
“She’s in a heck of a lot of pain, but she’s alive.”
She said she had been trapped for about 10 minutes before firefighters were able to free her.
The teen was on her way to the second day of work as an engineering apprentice. Her sister said she had worked hard to graduate early to do the course.
A police spokesperson said they were called to the incident at 5.55am.
Fire and Emergency northern shift manager Paul Radden said two crews from Hamilton and one from Chartwell managed to free the cyclist before leaving the scene for police.
