A truck lost half its load of logs after rounding a bend on State Highway 30 between Rotorua and Tokoroa.
Teresa Farac, who lives near the site of the spill, said she was at home when she heard a noise about 11.30am yesterday.
"I heard a really big bang and thought 'Oh
no, that's a logging truck again'," she said.
"When I came down there was timber everywhere.
"Lucky there was no one behind him," Miss Farac said.
Police had put up warning signs on the highway on either side of the spill but the fallen timber was moved to the side of the road
in less than an hour.
The Rob Dahm Contractors Ltd truck was not damaged and no one was hurt, Gordon Dahm, owner of Tokoroa-based Rob Dahm
Contractors, said. Many trucking companies had lost their load on that corner, but this was his company's first crash there in its 42
years of operating, Mr Dahm said.
"Plenty of log trucks have had trailers tip over on that corner," he said. "Today was our turn.
"The front edge of the trailer's wheels went off the edge of the tarseal and that was enough just to tip it over," he said.
"As soon as you hit the edge of the fog line on your left hand side the road just dips away quite sharply."
Mr Dahm said the truck had not been overloaded. "He just got caught out on the edge of the camber there," he said.
Mr Dahm said the bend was out of character compared with the rest of the road.
"I think it's a combination of the mix of cambers on that corner," Mr Dahm said.
"It's my driver's fault, no doubt about that," Mr Dahm said, but added the combination of the mix of two or three different cambers
on that corner, and the fact the road narrowed at that point, made it a tricky corner.
"There's no room for error," Mr Dahm said."You have to be 100 per cent concentrating."
Mr Dahm said no one was hurt and there was no damage to the truck. The police could not be reached for comment.
