A slip-repair worker whose truck slid backwards down a bank was airlifted to hospital yesterday morning.
Palmerston North Rescue Helicopter base manager Chris Moody said the man was working on slip repair along the Turakina Valley Rd, near Otairi, about 9.22am when the accident happened.
"A truck was turning around on the road - in the process it's fallen backwards down a bank, around 50 feet [15.24 metres]." Mr Moody said it was a "reasonably sheer drop" and the truck rolled, crushing its cab.
The Mangaweka and Hunterville fire brigades were able to get the driver - a Feilding man in his 50s - out and back up to the road by the time St John paramedics arrived.
St John spokesman Ian May said the truck was dumping a load of dirt when the bank gave way under it.
