CLIFF PLUNGE: The wreckage of a car that fell down a cliff near the Homer Tunnel.
CLIFF PLUNGE: The wreckage of a car that fell down a cliff near the Homer Tunnel.LATEST: Police have confirmed the two people killed in last night's crash on Milford Rd were Chinese nationals visiting New Zealand.
The married couple, aged in their 50s, were rear passengers in the car that plunged about five metres over the side of a cliff near the Homer Tunnel.
Emergency services were called to the scene shortly before 7pm.
Senior Sergeant Cynthia Fairley, of Winton, said the driver, a 33-year-old female Chinese national residing in New Zealand, was uninjured and was helping police with their investigation.
The front-seat passenger, a 29-year-old male Chinese national visiting New Zealand, suffered a lung injury and is in Southland Hospital.
Police said weather and alcohol were not factors in the crash, which happened at a downward hairpin corner about a kilometre from Milford.
It was too early to speculate on what caused the crash, Ms Fairley said.
A serious-crash investigator and police photographer from Invercargill will examine the scene today and will secure the car, a Subaru Forrester, for testing.
Autopsies will be carried out today to confirm the couple's cause of death.
Fairley said the Chinese embassy has been told about the crash, and the deceaseds' next of kin would be contacted before their names were released.
Senior Sergeant Dave Raynes, of Invercargill, said emergency services were called to the scene of the single-car crash shortly before 7pm.
The incident happened on the Milford side of the tunnel, he said.
Emergency crews battled to rescue the injured person and retrieve the two bodies before darkness fell, he said.
"The main focus for the guys was making sure the injured person was rescued and securing the bodies of the other two people in the car,'' he said.
St John communications spokesman Paul Burns said a 30-year-old man was flown to Southland Hospital after the crash.
The man had suffered serious injuries, but no other details about the nature of those injuries was known, Burns said.
The isolated nature of the area meant communications were difficult, with the ambulance service's radios unable to operate there, he said.
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[/url]- The Southland Times
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