More FM radio host Simon Barnett pulled a woman from her crashed vehicle, slicing his fingers on broken glass as he did so.
Mr Barnett and his family watched as a car U-turned and crashed head-on into the side of another vehicle on State Highway 5, north of Taupo.
Mr Barnett had been travelling to Taupo with his wife, two daughters and their boyfriends because his wife's sister had died.
"I see it, but I'm not registering it. Well I'm registering it now because I had to tell the police," he said on his radio show Si & Gary.
"I just look at it and it's a moment of sheer, blind, unadulterated panic because I go 'there is no way [the Hyundai] can avoid the silver car. There's just no way'.
"And sure enough, it just hits the vehicle, full on, straight into the side of it. And the sound is ghastly.
"Anybody who has been in an accident will know that sound. It's horrific.
"I just screamed. My kids told me in hindsight I just went 'Oh no, oh no, oh no' and then boom.
"I pull the car over and my heart is in my mouth," he said.
He heard the crashed silver Hyundai iMax van's horn make a piecing sound as it stuck; there was broken glass littering the scene and the vehicle's airbags had inflated.
"I'm in panic mode, thinking 'what the heck do I do?' And then I hear screaming. And I'm like 'Oh no'. And the first thing I see is two children's car seats in the back of the vehicle that's been hit. I race to the car and there's kids crying. The driver that did the U-turn is a female and screaming 'I'm stuck, I'm stuck'.
"I jump in to the car, and I cut my fingers on the glass... with all the strength I can muster, it's amazing what you think you can do that you can't, I pull the seatbelt."
But, as he feared the car would catch alight, the seat beat wouldn't come unbuckled.
A campervan had also pulled over and he managed to get a knife from its owners.
"I ran back to the vehicle, jump in the car and cut through the seatbelt, [and] released the woman from her vehicle.
"Her kids are beside themselves. They will be about five and two if that. The poor woman kept saying, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.'
"She was screaming, I just thought 'I've got to get her out'."
Police later told Mr Barnett it was a miracle everyone survived the crash.
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