Tasty distraction blamed for Cataract crash

A black Mitsubishi Colt ran off course about 4pm, while travelling north on a downhill bend about 1.5kms north of the Picton Road turnoff. 

The car hit the jersey barrier, flipped and skidded across both lanes into a roadside tree.

It then rebounded towards the road, coming to rest on its roof, in the breakdown lane.   

“It’s very fortunate that the car’s landed here because this is a dangerous section where people come over the top of the mountain,” said NSW Ambulance Wollongong chief inspector Terry Morrow, at the scene. 

“He [the driver] had been eating whilst driving and momentarily lost concentration.”

The driver walked away uninjured. His passenger, a woman believed aged in her early 20s, was taken by ambulance to Wollongong Hospital.  

“She was extricated from the vehicle and she was diagnosed with some neck pain and some chest pain from the seatbelt, however these were only minor injuries,” Insp Morrow said. 

Both the driver – a p-plater – and his passenger were able to get free of the wreckage before emergency services arrived. 

There was no disruption to passing traffic.