A truck driver who spent four hours crushed beneath the caved-in roof of his cab worried he'd broken a promise to always come home.
Lying wedged inside the overturned truck, partly underwater and struggling to breathe, he thought he may not see his partner again.
"I thought it was over," he said. "I thought I was gone."
The driver, who did not want to be named, had been transporting a load of fruit from Gisborne to Palmerston North when he felt the truck tip to the right as he went around a left-hand bend near Tangoio, north of Napier.
The truck righted itself, then started to roll over again towards the driver's side.
"As it was going over I undid my belt and pressed my legs against the door to keep myself away from the road," he said.
The truck landed on its side in a ditch, the roof of the cab crushing around the driver as it was shunted into a bank.
He was left pinned with his chest against the dashboard, the caved-in roof pressing against his back.
"I couldn't move at all, I couldn't breathe properly," he said.
Speaking in Hawke's Bay Hospital yesterday, the father of six grown children was tearful as he described the hours spent trapped in the wreck. "My partner, I promised her I'd always come home," he said.
"And then all of a sudden I nearly didn't. Another five or 10 seconds and I wouldn't have. If that roof hadn't stopped caving..."
Emergency services spent four hours working to free the man as he lay partly underwater, a tow truck holding the vehicle from slipping further into the mud.
"One of the firemen was just trying to keep my head out of the water," the driver said.
He was full of praise for the emergency crews who helped to free him. "Thanks to all of them, they were awesome."
After three days in hospital being treated for bruising and lacerations to his leg and arm, the man hoped to return home to Gisborne yesterday and be reunited with family.
The accident had prompted a reconciliation with his estranged mother and sisters. "Now I can go home and make up with them," he said.
Police said a cause for the crash had not yet been established, but load shift was being considered.
"At this stage ... we can't pinpoint any reason for it, mechanical or otherwise," Senior Constable Gerald Corkery said.
The truck driver, who has been driving for about 10 years, said he had no qualms about getting back on the road. "I'm going back. I'm not a person to let anything get me down."
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