Woman trapped under ute for hours thought she would die

With shattered glass around her head, her leg crushed under the weight of a ute, and no phone to call for help, Robyn Mathisen had no choice but to wait as nightfall crept over the remote Hanmer farmland where she was stranded. 

She wasn’t entirely alone. Her loyal chocolate Labrador, Nugget, stayed by her side, chewing on a bone.  

Looking back, Robyn still remembers the helplessness she felt that winter night in August 2014. 

The nightmare began when Robyn, 64, was leaving her home on Hossack Road to pick up her son and husband, whose ute she was driving.   

Robyn thought she had pulled the handbrake on hard enough and went to close the gate when the ute started rolling away in the direction of a bank. She sprinted after it and jumped in, with her right leg dangling out as she tried to steer the ute away from the bank.   

“All of a sudden, the ute just took off at full speed and went into a ditch, flipping on its side. The door had closed at my knee, so the whole weight of the ute was pinning my leg down.”   

“I was in the middle of nowhere on a farm by the Hanmer River with no phone to call anyone. I was trying to listen out for vehicles to yell for help, but there was no one around.”   

Surprisingly, Robyn didn’t feel much pain, just the relentless pressure of the utes weight on her leg as she tried unsuccessfully to wriggle free.   

As hours went by, helplessness began to kick in.   

“My grandad had died the week before, so I began to wonder if I was going to join him. In that moment, I began to wish that I would die to get it over with,” she said.   

After two hours of waiting, Robyn heard her husband and son approaching, having caught a ride home with a friend. It was around 9:30pm by then.   

Robyn laughed as she remembered her husband’s first words when they got to her: “I heard him say ‘she’s rolled the f***ing ute!’”   

Her husband called 111, and the fire engine arrived but got stuck in the Hanmer River trying to get to Robyn. There was talk of waiting for a more appropriate vehicle to cross the river, but the fire chief at the time said, “She’s been out here for two hours already. She’s not waiting any longer.”   

“They just put their foot down and gunned it through the river and got to me,” Robyn said.       

Because the weight of the ute was pressing down on Robyn’s knee, the fire crew had to be careful not to put pressure on it when they cut her out.   

Robyn doesn’t remember hearing the Westpac Rescue Helicopter arrive, only that she was promptly loaded in and on her way to Christchurch Hospital.   

Despite her leg having been crushed under the weight of a ute for two hours, Robyn’s concern lay with her clothing.   

“The paramedics in the chopper started cutting my clothes off. I had reasonably new jeans and a nice green merino that I’d just bought,” she laughed.   

When Robyn arrived at Christchurch Hospital, doctors discovered her knee ligament was torn and later found out her foot and ankle were broken, requiring surgery to insert a metal plate.   

Robyn, who works at the Hanmer Springs Service Station and is also a cleaner, said while it was a traumatic experience at the time, looking back, she’s grateful to be alive and not permanently in a wheelchair.   

She praised the fire emergency crew and the work of the Westpac Rescue Helicopters, which were vital for those living in such a rural community.   

“You always see choppers flying over to pick up victims of accidents. It’s a quick way to get people to the hospital and pick them up from remote areas so they aren’t sitting around and waiting,” Robyn said.   

“I was pretty relieved when help arrived. I felt like I was in safe hands and could relax a bit. I knew I was going to be okay,” Robyn said.