A Downer Group spokeswoman has confirmed a member of their Tauranga team was in the small truck which crashed into a canal near Tauranga yesterday.Emergency services worked past sunset to recover the body after being called to the Ruahihi Canal off McLaren Falls Rd in Omanawa about 1.20pm yesterday after
Downer confirms body retrieved from truck crashed in canal near McLaren Falls, Tauranga was an employee
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Tyre tracks indicated the truck came from McLaren Falls Rd and crashed through three fences before going into the canal. Photo / George Novak
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Police would wait until morning to retrieve the truck, a Downer vehicle.
A Downer spokesperson confirmed earlier in the afternoon the company was aware of the
serious vehicle incident.
"We are deeply concerned for the welfare of those involved in the incident and our focus is on the wellbeing of our people."
The retrieval operation took about three hours as the vehicle was completely submerged in the canal.
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Police had to wait for the water level to be lowered before they could confirm whether anyone was inside and decide what to do next.
The water level went down at a rate of around 100mm per 15 minutes.
Just after 4.30pm, a Fire and Emergency New Zealand incident support truck arrived on the scene, just as the exhaust on the vehicle was revealed.
The truck was right side up.
Shortly after, a Mount Maunganui Lifeguard Service vehicle arrived with an inflatable rescue boat (IRB).
Tyre tracks in the grass leading into the canal indicated the vehicle had come down a hill from McLaren Falls Rd.
Three fences on the hill between the road and the canal were knocked flat.
Several police cars were at the scene, accessing the water via a private driveway that was closed to the public.
A man who lived near the canal said he did not see anything, but he believed his dog's attention pricked when the accident occurred. This was somewhere between 1.10pm and 1.20pm.
He said he initially thought the noise was a "truck rumbling past", but he put it down to the wind.
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A man who works near the Ruahihi Power Station told the Bay of Plenty Times at about 1.30pm he heard sirens racing past him, up the hill towards McLaren Falls Rd.
The man believed there were multiple police cars, two ambulances and a fire truck heading to the scene.
Another worker near the incident said it was uncommon for accidents to happen in the area.
An employee of the Caltex petrol Station in Tauriko said she saw emergency services drive past, but traffic was flowing in both directions.
The crash is the second this month in the Bay of Plenty where a vehicle plunged into water.
On July 12, a car left State Highway 30, east of Rotorua, and crashed into Lake Rotoma.
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Police divers retrieved the bodies of 54-year-old David Alexander Fawcett Jarden and 53-year-old Bibi Ali, both of Auckland, the following day as their silver, four-door vehicle was removed from the lake.
In April 2019, a vehicle crashed off Maungatapu Bridge and into the Tauranga Harbour on State Highway 29A.
The vehicle, with the body of 51-year-old Stephen Allan Fifield inside, was recovered from the water the following day.
