Fifth truck crash this year 'worrying'

Hawke's Bay has had five truck rolling incidents reported this year.

An "extremely concerning" trend is developing in the heavy transport industry, a union spokesman says, after another truck and trailer rolled near Dannevirke yesterday.

The 41 tonne logging truck crashed on State Highway 2 near Matamau some 8km north of Dannevirke about 2.20am, blocking the road for several hours as heavy cranes were required to clear the road.

The experienced Buckeridge Transport Limited driver suffered minor injuries, including a fractured wrist, and had only begun his shift about one and a half hours before the crash after having three days off work, the company's manger Simon Buckeridge said.

He said the truck was travelling from Napier to Wellington when it crashed.

Yesterday's incident was the fifth single vehicle incident involving a truck on Hawke's Bay roads this year and the regular occurrence was "worrying" for First Union spokesman Edward Miller, who represents logging and industrial truck drivers.

Last month a truck carrying fertiliser went off the road on State Highway 5, just north of Te Pohue. The highway was reduced to one lane for about three hours after it hit a bank and overturned. The driver was taken to Hawke's Bay Hospital in a serious condition.

A logging truck also spilled its 16.7 tonne load at a roundabout intersecting Maraekakaho Rd, Longlands Rd and the Hawke's Bay Expressway on January 13, just two days after a similar event south of Dannevirke, when a logging truck lost its load, causing traffic delays for more than two hours.

Mr Miller was thankful the driver involved in yesterday's crash was not seriously injured and there had been no fatalities in the past month's crashes.

He preferred not to speculate on the cause of yesterday's crash while the police were still investigating but said the high number of truck prangs during the past month was "extremely concerning".

However, he said with log prices edging up there was pressure on drivers to deliver their load to the docks as quickly as possible.

The maximum number of hours a day truck drivers can work is 14, while 70 hours is the limit per week.