Driver, horse trapped after collision

Emergency services work to free a trapped horse after a crash on Taihape Rd at Okawa yesterday. Photo / Paul Taylor

A Matapiro man and his horse were left trapped inside a truck after a collision on Taihape Rd yesterday.

Police said the crash happened at Okawa about 1.30pm, when a logging truck, travelling south on Taihape Rd, and the horse truck, which was turning out of Okawa farmstead's driveway, collided.

The logging truck's trailer jack-knifed across the road and the front of the horse truck received extensive damage.

Emergency services had to cut the horse truck driver from the truck.

St John Heretaunga territory manager Brendon Hutchinson said the man, aged in his 50s, was taken to Hawke's Bay Hospital with serious leg injuries.

His wife, who had been riding in the front passenger seat and was not trapped following the crash, was also taken to hospital with moderate chest injuries and minor leg injuries.

The logging truck driver was uninjured.

Fire crews from Hastings and Napier attended and the road was reduced to one lane of traffic for about three hours.

The couple's horse, a thoroughbred broodmare, could not be removed until the truck was towed out of a roadside ditch and on to level ground.

A police officer led the horse out of the truck on a length of rope. It was taken back to Okawa, where it would stay until its owners were well enough to retrieve it.

Lime Country Thoroughbreds co-owner Jo Griffin said the horse had not required a vet after the crash.

"The horse has come out of it really well. There are no stitches, no blood even."

The thoroughbred mare had been brought to Okawa for pregnancy scanning as she was 16 days in foal.

"I thought she was remarkably relaxed when she came off the truck.

"We're all so relieved she has no injuries."