Truck driver thought 'This is it'

A Rotorua truck driver thought "this is it" when his truck carrying an empty container jack-knifed during rush-hour traffic.

The truck, travelling downhill on SH2 between Waipukurau and Hastings around 4pm on Tuesday, jack-knifed and ploughed 40m along a hillside bank before coming to a halt.

The driver climbed out unscathed and no other vehicles were hit.

The driver, who only gave the name Dean, said he remembered trying to stay in control as the trailer started sliding.

"I was just coming down the hill probably doing about 80km/h, the exhaust brakes were on so I was slowing down, and the next thing was the trailer just started to come out the side, and the rest is history. It's just so, so, lucky I didn't hit anyone and didn't hurt myself.

"I remember thinking, 'this is it' and then as soon as I came to a stop my first thought was 'have I hit anyone?' Because I didn't know what had happened. I still can't believe how it happened, it's amazing."

Witness Dan Forrest was travelling uphill on the State Highway 2 stretch of road with two others, when they saw the trailer skidding out as it approached them.

"We were just waiting to see if we would have to swerve but luckily it stopped just in time before it got to us," he said.

It came to a halt only 10m away from their van, missing any traffic.

"If anybody had been there they just would have got slammed into there [the hillside bank]."

Waipukurau police Senior Sergeant Ross Gilbert said the road took five hours to clear, causing considerable time delays for commuting vehicles.

One witness said he saw "hundreds" of cars queuing to get past the wreckage. "I only waited about 20 minutes, but on the southern side of the road there was a huge line to get through," he said. "There would have been hundreds of cars."

Traffic was directed at the scene by Otane firefighters while police and a towing company winched the trailer and truck cab from the shallow ditch it had ended up in.

"The road took approximately five hours to clear because of the heavy nature of the vehicle and we had to get all the heavy lifting equipment," Mr Gilbert said. He said investigations were still under way to determine if charges were likely.

- APNZ