Cows had to be destroyed after a livestock truck overturned outside Te Aute College on State Highway 2 yesterday afternoon.
The experienced driver, from Central Hawke's Bay, was comforted by family at Hawke's Bay Hospital, Hastings, last night as the police commercial vehicle investigation unit spent about six hours at the
scene, trying to establish how the truck overturned.
The driver had worked for Bachetts Transport for five years and was on his way to Dannevirke when the accident happened.
Hawke's Bay Hospital treated and discharged three people - the truck driver and two others believed to have been in a car involved in the accident.
The truck-and-trailer unit, capable of carrying about 50 cows, was travelling south when it overturned, spilling its load of two-year-old friesian heifers onto the road and into the rugby grounds of the college. A crane was brought in to right the truck and the road reopened about 11pm.
