A man who came across the scene of the incident described seeing a huge cloud of dust.
"I saw an explosion of dust, it was huge, I thought it was a bunch of kids hooning up the road."
He arrived at the mangled truck to find the driver unhurt and setting cattle free from the trailer. They had been bound for slaughter in Whakatu.
"There were heaps of [cattle]. They didn't look happy."
Police, the Hastings fire brigade and Hastings District Council's animal control team arrived to offer assistance.
While 12 cattle were freed and herded into a nearby paddock by local farmers, 21 remained trapped in the trailer.
They could not be removed until the truck was put back on its wheels by a crane and the trailer doors were cut off, more than an hour later.
Sergeant Sally Patrick said it was "really lucky that we haven't got dying or injured cattle".
Stephenson Transport manager Kent Karangaroa said he was relieved nobody was hurt.
"No one's hurt, that's the main thing. Everyone's going to go home tonight."
Yesterday's incident was the fourth single vehicle incident involving a truck on Hawke's Bay roads this year.
Last month a truck with a trailer 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 the truck hit a bank and overturned. The truck 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 State Highway 50b.
The driver walked away unscathed.
This happened 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. The truck's trailer tipped, spilling logs near Wi Duncan Rd and State Highway 2 about 6.30am. No one was injured.
First Union spokesman Edward Miller, who represents logging and industrial truck drivers, did not want to comment specifically on yesterday's incident, but said there were "unrealistic expectations" placed on the country's truck drivers, which could lead to fatigue.
The maximum number of hours a day truck drivers can work is 14, while 70 hours is the limit per week.
"We maintain the position that 14 hours is way too many hours to be working in a day."
