A logging truck driver thought he was going to die as he watched a ute fly through the air towards his windscreen.
Ian Graham was driving a load of logs to Tauranga from Rotorua when the Toyota Hilux crashed into his truck on Pyes Pa Rd just past Taumata Rd about 2.30pm yesterday.
The driver of the silver ute appeared to have taken the corner too fast, according to police, and clipped the side of a logging truck, which was heading in the opposite direction, taking out the back six sets of tyres. It then flew through the air and slammed head on into Mr Graham's truck that was directly behind the first one.
"He came through and he was in mid air when he hit me. That's how high it was," he told the Bay of Plenty Times, pointing to the cracked windscreen and the bent steel bar around the bottom of the windscreen.
"It came up and it was on its side that's the ute that slammed into me. I thought I was going to die. I thought he was going to come into the cab. That's how high he was."