Culvert blamed for tanker driver's death

Police are blaming a concrete culvert for the death yesterday of a 40-year-old Palmerston North milk tanker driver.

Desmond Gardiner was driving a Fonterra tanker on State Highway 56 toward Palmerston North when his truck and a car collided.

"If he had not hit the culvert, it is possible that he might have survived going into the ditch," Sergeant Pete West of Palmerston North police said.

"He was alive when we reached him, but died soon after."

The driver of the car, a woman in her 20s, was taken to Palmerston North Hospital with a broken arm and internal injuries.

Mr West described her condition as serious but not life-threatening.

- nzpa