A Canterbury motorist says he is "very lucky" to be alive after two cars driving side-by-side slammed into each other while heading towards him.
The incident occurred on Saturday afternoon at the corner of Travis Rd and Anzac Dr in Christchurch.
Dashcam footage showed the two cars driving wheel-to-wheel before slamming into each other, with one taking out a sign on an embankment that spun across the road.
Chris Hoover, the motorist who captured the footage, told 1News he was on a "classic Saturday afternoon trip" to the hardware store when he witnessed the incident.
"It was only a couple of minutes away from home – traffic was nice and steady," he said.
"Turned the corner and I did notice something up ahead of me, but I hadn't quite registered what was going on yet. And then the vehicle in front of me pulled to the left.
"That's when I saw the two vehicles coming in, and that's when I hit the brakes pretty hard."
Hoover said he "completely froze".
"My heart had basically stopped," he said. "I took a couple of seconds just to gather my thoughts."
He pulled over and reported the incident to police, who told him to drop the footage off at a nearby station.
Police said it received a report of a vehicle driving erratically on Travis Rd at around 1pm on Saturday, October 10.
Hoover said he "counted my lucky stars", believing he was "very lucky" to have been able to drive away from the incident unscathed.
He said if the car that hit the sign was on the right-hand side of the embankment, "I wouldn't be talking to you today – there's no two ways about it".
"It was a 50/50 for me, whether I was coming home that day."
Despite taking the footage into the station, Hoover said police told him it wouldn't be much use because the licence plates on both vehicles were difficult to see.
A police spokesperson still encouraged him to upload the video "for us to determine any further enquiries".
Asked if he had a message for the two drivers, Hoover said: "Stuff like that kills people.
"Huge amount of risk involved, and not just for the people in the two cars, for everybody else, in front of them and behind them.
"It could have been an awful lot worse."
SHARE ME