Dashcam footage shows the moment a couple narrowly avoided death after a truck's trailer violently crashed into their car on Tuesday.
Regan Cunliffe and his wife Rachel were enjoying a calm drive on State Highway 16 between Helensville and Kaukapakapa when a truck rounded a corner, losing control at a dangerous speed.
Regan told Newshub when he saw the truck coming towards him with smoke pouring off its back, he immediately thought "that doesn't look good".
And when they noticed the trailer was skipping out across the road, he knew it was inevitable there was going to be a collision.
"Ultimately it was going to come down to how bad that was," Cunliffe said.
He told Newshub at the time he was "pretty calm" and tried to position his car to minimalise the impact.
"[I thought] right, there are trees on one side, if I turn hard into them to swerve to avoid the truck you're then likely to go straight into a tree," he said.
"Maintaining a straight course would have meant that the front of the car would have hit the trailer."
Shocking dashcam footage shows the moment the truck's trailer collides with the car, crumpling in the rear right side.
The pair are lucky to be alive as images of the car show a mangled and twisted wreck.
Although they escaped with minor injuries, the pair have been shaken up.
Cunliffe told Newshub he has been picking glass out of his body and has a sore face from being slapped in the side of the head by an airbag.
Cunliffe said he's watched the video back many times.
"It actually happened real fast but it was simply a case of… I drive that road all the time so I'm very familiar with that corner."
Cunliffe said he spoke with the truck driver who came over once they had both stopped.
"He got out of his truck and came over to us to check we were ok and I asked if he was alright. He was probably a bit shaken - we all were."
Cunliffe is still surprised he and his wife managed to walk away from the crash with their lives and believes they survived from split-second decision making.
He thinks the truck might have had a mechanical fault that caused the crash.
He hasn't heard back from the insurance company but expects the car will be a write-off.