Another truck has come to grief on the troublesome Route K roundabout at Tauriko despite major efforts to prevent heavy vehicles from toppling over. A truck and trailer unit carrying a 20-tonne container of apples for export from Hawke's Bay flipped on to its side at 3.30pm yesterday while trying tonegotiate the roundabout as it headed to the Port of Tauranga. It was the fifth truck accident at the roundabout since January last year. A truck and trailer carrying 21 tonnes of timber flipped on its side last August 18, a stock truck carrying 40 weaner cows tipped over on March 9, and on March 1 and January 28 two other trucks also lost their balance. Strategic traffic unit Senior Sergeant Ian Campion said traffic was diverted around one side of the roundabout yesterday as two cranes worked to right the truck unit. The driver was not injured. The container was loaded on to another truck and taken away to be weighed. The roundabout was opened fully at 6pm after commercial vehicle investigators had inspected the scene. In the past, several truckies blamed poor road design rather than speed for the accidents. But Tauranga City Council transport manager Geoff Morgan said an investigation into the crashes had found no fault with the roundabout itself. He said Opus International Consultants had examined the road camber and found no evidence of a problem. A report on the string of truck crashes found that speed into and on the roundabout was the main contributing factor to three of the trucks rolling there. The report recommended the intersection be made more visible by increasing the roundabout height through tree planting. Over a two-week period in October more topsoil was piled on to the centre of the roundabout and seven large pohutukawa and 1517 plants were planted. Signs warning truck drivers to take the corner at a maximum speed of 25kmh were also placed in highly visible spots on the approach to the roundabout. Mr Campion said yesterday's crash was the first since the work had been done on the roundabout. It was too early to say what had caused the accident.
