The moment a huge tree fell on a commuter's car in Hamilton yesterday morning has been described as a lucky escape by a witness.
Tom Chang, who captured the incident on camera, said he was on Hamilton River Road driving to work when it happened.
"Suddenly, you just hear this noise ... a crunch," he said. "It's pretty loud and then you just think, what's that noise?
"And the next minute you see this massive tee falling down."
Chang said recent bad weather was "absolutely" behind the topple.
He said the occupant of the car was unhurt - but it could've been much worse if the backed-up traffic had been on the other side of the road, where the bulk of the tree landed: "It would be a very different story.
"And then that time was just before school time, just before kids started going to school, so we were very fortunate," he said, adding the stretch of road is "beautiful" but "even now, if you go there's some trees that look a bit dodgy".
Maria Barry, Hamilton City Council's parks and recreation manager, said their priority yesterday was public safety and removing the tree.
"As part of our routine street tree inspections, this tree was recently checked and there were no signs to indicate any issues," she said.
"We'll be doing a full investigation to find out why the tree fell. The results of that investigation will inform what we do next.
"If extreme weather is forecast, like today, we have extra staff on-call to respond to any incidents."
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