Wellington - A New Zealand driver had a miraculous escape after his car plunged 35 metres down a cliff and into a river when he lost control of the vehicle while choking on a Crunchie chocolate bar, the Stuff website reported Wednesday.
Police said the man was driving with his mother in the central North Island on Tuesday when their vehicle skidded off the road and down a steep bank.
"There was torrential rain. But what really set it off was the fact he was eating a chocolate bar and he started to choke," Hawke's Bay road policing spokesman Grant Marshall told Stuff.
"He applied the brakes to pull over, but he got into a skid and that's when they went off the side of the road."
The pair suffered only minor injuries and hypothermia in the accident.
Man, 40, chokes on a Crunchie bar and drives his car off a 35-metre cliff face before landing in river in New Zeal… https://t.co/7R48Q5cvN6
— News, Views, People. (@NVPeople) November 16, 2016
"We're gobsmacked as to how they survived this," Marshall said.
The utility vehicle was a write-off and remained in the Waipunga River.
dpa