By JASON COLLIE transport reporter
Aucklanders were hit by another miserable Friday drive home yesterday after a spate of accidents on the city's motorways.
The worst - a truck carrying bird pellets that rolled in the northbound lanes of the Takanini overbridge, followed by a two-car crash directly opposite in the other
carriageway just after 2 pm - caused chaos across South Auckland as motorists tried to escape the jams.
Motorway traffic queued back to Tip Top corner and Ramarama respectively.
There were also serious jams on Great South Rd as motorists were diverted away from the accident sites.
The driver of the truck was cut free and taken to Middlemore Hospital with moderate injuries.
It was almost four hours before emergency services were able to use cranes to lift the truck-and-tanker unit.
Sergeant Mike Neary, of the motorway unit at Ellerslie, said the truck rolled as it went around the onramp onto the motorway at Takanini.
About 20 tonnes of pellets spilled across both carriageways and the police used an earthmover, bobcat and four tipper trucks to clear it up.
Two cranes were given a police escort to get them to the accident site.
Sergeant Neary said the collision in the opposite carriageway was probably caused by drivers "rubber-necking" as they went past the truck.
It closed the southbound lanes for almost 45 minutes, while northbound was not clear until about 6 pm.
There were a number of other crashes on the jammed motorways, including a truck that ended up in a ditch south of the original accident.
"It turned Auckland to chaos again," said Sergeant Neary, who added that about 20 per cent of motorway accidents happened on Friday afternoons.
Inspector Alan Shearer, of the police northern communications centre, said: "There are quite a few accidents up and down the motorway.
"It is fairly busy all round."
