Bee sting causes truck crash

A truck driver managed to escape a double tragedy yesterday when he crashed his truck in central Masterton after blacking out following a bee sting.

Bryan Page was making a dash for the Masterton Medical Centre after feeling "a bit crook" and was only metres away from his destination when he blacked out.

Mr Page, a 50-year-old maintenance contractor from Masterton, was stung when his truck ran into a swarm of bees while driving from Martinborough to Greytown.

Immediately after he was stung he stopped his truck to pull the sting from his chest. He then continued on, feeling no ill effects until he was overcome by the poison, without warning in the centre of Masterton.

He said: "I decided to go to the doctors just in case it was a bit more serious than I thought it was. From then on, maybe I went into autopilot. It just happened so quick."

"I didn't even have time to pull over and stop."

He fainted and ploughed into a parked truck just across the road from his destination -- the Masterton Medical Centre on Lincoln Rd.

The rudderless truck careered through a roundabout, over a garden, glanced off a lamp post, and bounced back on to the road and into the rear end of another parked truck.

After the crash he said he drifted in and out of consciousness for about an hour and only has vague recollections of his treatment and subsequent transportation to Masterton Hospital.

Mr Page said he had been stung by bees before so he was mystified why he would react so severely on this occasion.

"It could've been a rogue bee that didn't like me. I'm very fit and I have never had an allergic reaction."

Doctors suggested he carry an anti-histamine shot in future in case of further bee stings.

According to the National Poisons Centre, severe reactions to bee stings have been known to kill on rare occasions.

- WAIRARAPA TIMES-AGE (MASTERTON)