A family and a woman escaped injury on Mother's Day on Sunday, after the vehicle driven by the family allegedly plowed into the back of the car driven by the woman, forcing it into a ditch opposite Avele college.

An eyewitness who was at the scene, Vailele Va'a, told Samoa Observer that the incident involved a Toyota RAV4 driven by a woman of Asian origin and a silver Toyota Gaia used by a family.

He said the man who drove the Toyota Gaia had a pregnant woman as the offside passenger with children in the backseat, and were driving from town behind the Toyota RAV4 when the crash occurred.

Living opposite the scene of the traffic incident, Mr Va'a said he could not tell who was at fault as his view was blocked by a house in front of his property.

"We were just sitting outside under this tree when we heard a loud bang. We don’t know exactly who was at fault because we couldn’t really see because of this house in front of us. I did see the two cars coming from town but once it went past this house in front of us, I couldn’t see anymore," he said.

"The Toyota Gaia which was behind the RAV4 was actually speeding. The Chinese lady that came in the RAV4 made a right turn to go to her house and that was when the silver Toyota bumped into it from behind, causing it to fall into the tall grass ditch just off the road.”

The Toyota Gaia was badly damaged upon impact while the Toyota RAV4 had a dent in the back, according to Mr Va'a.

"I did hear the man that drove the Toyota Gaia tell the police that the Chinese lady didn’t signal her indicators that she would make a right turn, but the lady said she had her right indicator on,” he added.

Mr Va'a said no one checked on the driver of the Toyota RAV4 about two minutes after the incident, which compelled him to rush over. 

"About two minutes after the incident, no one went over to check on the car that fell off the road, so we rushed over to check if anyone was injured," he added.

"When I got there the lady in the RAV4 had her head on the steering wheel, and I thought she was injured, but then she sat back up and we asked her if she was ok and she said she was ok."

The occupants of both vehicles did not appear to suffer from any injuries with the Police on the scene 15 minutes later, who then took the driver of the Toyota Gaia to the police station for questioning.

Another eyewitness, Laki Logova of Ray’s Taxi Stand, told Samoa Observer that a tow-truck turned up after the Police arrived and pulled the Toyota RAV4 out of the ditch. It was not possible to get a comment from the Police before press time.