Runaway milk tanker kills two

Two people are dead and four others seriously injured after a driver lost control of his milk tanker which smashed into two oncoming vehicles in the Western Bay last night.
Two Tauranga men, aged 28 and 38, died at the scene of the crash, which happened at Tauriko at 7pm and was described as "like a bomb exploding".
One was the driver in an oncoming four-wheel-drive but police had not established whether the other man was the driver or a passenger in the other vehicle, also a four-wheel-drive.
The men's names were to be released later today. Police say it was a miracle anyone survived.
Debris at the scene spanned about 170m and included a power pole which snapped in half. It set fire to a hedge just 3m from one of the vehicles, which was upside-down and leaking fuel with two people trapped inside.
Senior Sergeant Ian Campion today told the Bay of Plenty Times the west-bound milk tanker was travelling around a moderate left-hand bend on State Highway 29 when the driver lost control near Redwood Lane.
"The truck has ... rolled on to its right side, collecting a trailer that was towed by another four-wheel-drive.
"The vehicle has then slid down the state highway completely across both lanes and then struck two other oncoming four-wheel-drives."
It was too early to tell what may have led to the crash but police and a Commercial Vehicle Investigation Unit were investigating.
Four people, including the milk truck driver, were taken to hospital suffering head and chest injuries. They were aged 15, 35, 34 and 29.
A nearby resident who was first on the scene and comforted one of the survivors, said the sound of the crash was "like a bomb exploding".
"The noise rattled my china cabinet and you could hear the sound of the steel screaming as the truck slid 150 yards down the road.
"How on Earth anyone survived is beyond me, it was pretty horrific," the man said.
"I helped one person but it was too late for the others, they were already dead."
The man, who asked not to be named, said the stretch of road was an accident blackspot with three crashes he knew of in the past four years happening there.
"People come around the corner into the middle (of the road) ... This crash is a tragedy but it has been coming for some time."
A St John Ambulance spokesman said he was extremely grateful to two nurses from the emergency department at Tauranga Hospital and members of the public who were "very helpful" at the scene.
Mr Campion said it was "amazing" that anyone in a white four-wheel-drive believed to be the second hit by the tanker survived at all.
"The damage has ripped that vehicle to shreds."
The crash has taken the year's road toll to 11 _ already higher than the 10 recorded for 2005.
"What's extremely disappointing was that until the end of July we only had four deaths on Western Bay roads and since then we've had seven. That is a shocking record really," Mr Campion said.
Senior Station Officer Philip Price of the Tauranga Fire Service described a scene of chaos which took five hours to clear.
Firefighters arrived to find two vehicles upside down and the milk tanker on its side leaking amid a crash scene which stretched about 170m, he said.
"We had crowds of people under the high-tension lines when we got there. It was chaos".
Firefighters had to put out a hedge fire next to one vehicle, which began after a power pole was snapped in half.
"It was threatening the vehicle with people trapped in it. The high-tension lines actually ignited the trees."
It was initially feared the tanker held "caustic" chemicals, not milk, Mr Price said. "We didn't know what it was carrying initially. As it turned out it was skim milk product. We made a dam using soil to stop milk going down to the river to prevent contamination."
Mr Price said the accident was one of the worst he had seen in recent years.
"Just the sheer size of the scene, the distances, the fact that we had fire, high-tension lines, the spill and basically three people trapped in three different vehicles. It was fairly complex."
Emergency services were also called to another crash along the diversion route when a car with a family inside crashed along Poripori Rd at 7.50pm. No one was hurt but it slowed the diverted traffic even further.
Mr Price said the milk tanker driver was removed through the truck's windscreen and taken to Tauranga Hospital by ambulance.
Firefighters cut the bodies of both men from their vehicles later in the night.
Hundreds of motorists were redirected along Poripori Rd, Crawford Rd and Wairoa Rd to State Highway 2 for five hours after the crash.
Powerco Network Operations Manager Ross Dixon said the accident caused power to be cut to about 1000 Western Bay homes. Supply was restored by 1.30am today.
- additional reporting, Yvette Wakelin