By Emma Cropper
Three scaffolders are lucky to be alive after escaping a 300m plunge off the side of a bank in their 4WD in Banks Peninsula.
What's more amazing is that the two passengers did not even have their seatbelts on.
Rescuers were amazed the young men are still alive and say they should be too.
"I would think they would be looking back and counting their lucky stars that they're still with us today," says Akaroa Police Constable Jeremy Hopson.
The vehicle rolled almost a dozen times as it plunged down the steep bank, stopped only by a thick bush 300m below.
The three men aged in their mid-20s escaped with just minor cuts and bruises, despite two of them not wearing seatbelts.
Rescuers were expecting much worse.
"Lady luck was looking down on them yesterday and to have all three of them get out of the vehicle and crawl back up to the top of the hill and be walking around was amazing, absolutely amazing," says Const Hopson.
They were returning from a scaffolding job near Little Akaloa when they missed the corner and plummeted over the side.
"The weather at the time was shocking to say the least. It was low cloud base, it was drizzle, you couldn't see very far in front of you," says Const Hopson.
The driver of the car still showed up to work today but wouldn't talk to 3 News about his close call.
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