The woman who pulled a crying baby from a "horrendous" crash in Southland last night said nothing could be done for the three people who died in the smash.
"You couldn't recognise the driver's side of the car," Suzanne Harvey told Fairfax.
Three people - a man aged 28 and two women aged 22 and 28, were killed in the head-on two-car crash on the Dipton-Winton Highway, but a toddler and a baby survived with just moderate and minor injuries.
Fairfax reported the farmer noticed a tanker's hazard lights from her home late last night, realised there had been a crash and then went straight to the scene.
When she arrived, a two-year-old boy was cuddled into a fireman and a baby was crying from the wreck of a car.
There was nothing she could do for the three adults.
"Your next thing is, OK, we have a couple of kids who need attention immediately," Ms Harvey said.
"I said 'all right I will get [the baby] out'."
"The best thing to do was just to keep calm and comfort the baby."
Ms Harvey sat in a firecrew ute with the baby until, along with the toddler, they were flown to Southland Hospital with non life-threatening injuries.
"You get in there and you do what you can because if that had happened to me I would hope that someone would look after my kids," she said.
The highway was closed until 5am today. Police say SH6 will be temporarily closed on Tuesday for a time as they revisit the scene.
Family members of the children are now at the hospital with them.
The victims were three of nine people to die on the roads since Friday.
SHARE ME