One injured in Maungatapu Bridge crash

One person has been taken to hospital after a three car crash on the Maungatapu Bridge this morning.

Western Bay of Plenty road policing manager Senior Sergeant Ian Campion said the cars collided about 9am this morning blocking the southbound lane for about 40 minutes.

One vehicle crossed the centre line and the driver of another car swerved to avoid it hitting the safety barrier before bouncing back and crashing into another car in the process.

Mr Campion said one person was taken to Tauranga Hospital for observation.

The southbound lane was blocked completely and diversions were put in place at Baypark and at the Maungatapu roundabout while the road was cleared.

"At that time of day you can imagine there was quite a bit of traffic built up," he said. "Fortunately no one was injured but this highlights the need for people to be paying attention to what they are actually doing and that's driving."

The other four people involved in the crash were not injured.

Contractors were on scene to fix the damaged safety rail.