A Canterbury fire chief says a spate of serious crashes is a stark reminder of how dangerous sunstrike can be to motorists.

The Rolleston Volunteer Fire Brigade has attended six crashes over the past two weeks, where people had to be cut out of vehicles. Fire chief Marty Tier said sunstrike was a possible factor in all of them.

"Most of the calls we’re getting are from sunstrike and pulling out in front of people and not seeing them,” he said.

Tier said the crashes happened between 7.15-8.30am when the rising sun was low in the sky.

A crash at the intersection of Jones and Curraghs Rds at 7.20am on Thursday left one person critically injured.…