Just a second earlier and a Northland motorist may not have survived after a log slammed into the front of her car when a fully laden logging truck rolled south of Whangarei.
The driver of a Mark Adams Contracting log truck lost control near the intersection with Springfield Rd at Oakleigh, 15km south of Whangarei, about 9.55am yesterday.
Taipuha resident Margaret Baker was about 200m from the oncoming truck when she saw it "tip over" and veer into her lane. The southbound truck swung round 180 degrees and upon impact sent logs travelling at high speed towards Ms Baker's car.
"I had time to go ... 'those logs are going to hit me'," Ms Baker said.
"You just brace yourself."
Ms Baker slammed on her brakes for 50m until her car came to a stop just metres from the truck, she said.
"There was just logs rolling down the road. It all just happened so fast".
The airbags of her Toyota Prius deployed and her windscreen cracked after a log jammed itself under her car, while other logs blocked the highway.
"It was so lucky that there was not someone further up or they wouldn't be here," Ms Baker said.
The truck driver, believed to be 30 years old, managed to crawl from the vehicle and remained in Whangarei Hospital with moderate injuries.
By the time Ms Baker got out of her car the driver had got out and was complaining of pain, particularly in his leg.
She was driving slowly because she was early for a doctor's appointment in Whangarei which meant she was able to brake in time.
"I'm just so pleased that he didn't kill me," she added.
The truck was travelling south from the Far North to the Port of Whangarei.
Sergeant Lance Goulsbro, of Highway Patrol, said Ms Baker was extremely lucky not to have sustained more serious injuries.
"If she was even one or two seconds earlier she would have got cleaned out big time."
A mechanical fault, believed to be suspension related, was found by a member of the Commercial Vehicle Investigation team to be the cause of the accident, he said.
The director of the trucking company, Mark Adams, who was at the scene, said the truck had undergone and passed a certificate of fitness three or four weeks earlier.
The crash blocked one lane of State Highway 1 while a crane removed the truck and logs from the road, but later reopened about 2pm.