Truck crash closes highway

A truck rolled closing one lane of State Highway 2 for nearly five hours on Saturday. Photo/Jenta Brown

A truck driver is likely to face charges of careless driving after his truck rolled, closing one lane of State Highway 2 for nearly five hours on Saturday.

The truck and trailer unit full of concrete slabs rolled south of Katikati outside Thompsons Track at 7.15am and knocked over a power pole.

Senior Sergeant Shannon Clifford, of Tauranga police, said the man driving the truck suffered minor injuries and was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash.

"As it went around the corner the load started to sway, which caused the whole unit to roll," Mr Clifford said.

No other vehicles were involved and the truck driver climbed out of the vehicle on his own before emergency services arrived, he said.

"The driver was taken to Tauranga Hospital."

Mr Clifford said it was likely the truck driver would be charged with careless driving.

The highway was reduced to one lane while emergency services waited for a crane to arrive to lift the truck onto the road and for crews to arrive to restore the power lines.

"The reason the road was reduced to one lane for such a big part of the day was due to the fact there were power lines hanging," Mr Clifford said.

The highway was closed to both lanes for a short time about 11am and north-bound traffic backed up nearly 2km while the crane lifted the truck and the broken power lines were attended to.

The police Commercial Vehicle Investigation Unit was at the scene and assisted in the investigation to determine the cause of the crash.

The road was re-opened to both lanes shortly after midday.