Police are investigating a collision between a car and logging truck on one of Northland's busiest trucking roads.
In a split second decision a logging truck driver took evasive action and ended up crashing into native bush to avoid a car sliding towards his rig.
The empty logging truck ended up off the road, stopping just before plunging further down the bank and narrowly missing the limbs of a totara tree.
The driver of the car also crashed off the road and had to be freed by Whangarei firefighters.
Firefighters had to free the driver of the BMW car after it lost control, hit a logging truck and ended up off Otaika Valley Rd. Photo/Kristin Edge
Police said an initial assessment of the scene on Otaika Valley Road indicated a 54-year-old Auckland driver of a BMW car lost control in wet conditions on a left-hand corner about 10am yesterday.
Speaking from the scene Northland's top traffic officer, Inspector Wayne Ewers, said fortunately the oncoming truck driver had taken evasive action and it was lucky the BMW driver was taken to hospital in a serious condition as it could have been much worse.
The truck driver, who did not want to be named, was able to get out of the truck's cab with no injuries. He said it was lucky no branches smashed the windscreen and impaled him.
Firefighters stretcher an injured driver from his car that slide out of control into a logging truck. Photo/Michael Cunningham
The truck driver, with one year's experience behind the wheel, was on his way to collect logs in Dargaville when he was faced with a silver car "sledging" towards him around a corner.
"The car was sledging sideways. I could see the fear in his eyes, he was leaning up against the pillar of the door. In a split second I thought if I move over I could save someone's life. I came over as far off the road as I could. Then I tried to get round the rest of the corner, then there was a bang," said the driver, who was left shaken by the incident.
He said his reaction was the result of training he had done two weeks earlier. It was a driver safety course that covered all aspects of truck driving from driver nutrition to rollovers and evasive action.
"It just kicked in and I'm feeling pretty lucky. I might go and buy a Lotto ticket."
The scene of the crash.
The car driver was taken by St John ambulance to Whangarei Hospital where he would also have blood samples taken and tested for alcohol and drugs.
Mr Ewers said investigations would continue and it was likely charges would be laid.
Emergency workers at yesterday's crash.
Yesterday's incident happened only 30 metres from where a loaded truck and trailer unit went off the road on April 5 in torrential rain.
