Hawke's Bay is heading towards one of its highest road tolls in several years, according to latest statistics.
The death of a Bay View man on Wednesday afternoon when the car he was driving towards Bay View veered across State Highway 2 and collided with an oncoming southbound logging truck near The Beacons - about 1km north of the Hawke's Bay Airport entrance - took the year's toll in the area from Wairoa to Tararua to 15, two more than for the whole of last year, and the highest for January 1-August 3 period since 2012.
The latest fatality was that of 56-year-old Trevor Paul Hampton, whose name was released by police late yesterday.
He was the driver of a northbound bronze Toyota Corolla which collided with the laden truck and trailer just after 2pm on Wednesday, despite the truck driver's desperate and evasive attempts to avoid the straying car as it crossed the centreline into his path.
The truck, operated by Napier company B.E.Norris Logging, was already partially off the highway way on its side of the road as the car hit the right front, the truck then ploughing through the dirt at the roadside as the car wreckage was flung across the road, where it came to rest off the highway. Mr Hampton is thought to have died instantly.