KEY POINTS:
A salvage operation is underway to remove a truck and container-load of domestic rubbish which toppled into Southland's Makarewa River last night.
The truck was transporting two shipping containers full of rubbish from Gore when the front container became unbalanced and hit the side of a bridge over the Makarewa Flood Channel on SH96 between Winton and Mataura, about 5pm.
The driver stopped the truck, but as it came to a halt the container fell off, landing on the riverbank.
The movement of the container unbalanced the cab which then also tipped over the side of the bridge and landed upside-down on top of the dislodged container.
The truck's trailer, with the other container on it, remained connected to the swinging truck, but on the bridge.
The 32-year-old driver, the owner-operator of the truck, was not injured.
Environment Southland senior technical officer Graeme McKenzie told NZPA a crane was being taken to the site this morning to lift the truck and container out of the river.
Most of the rubbish remained in the container and staff would be on site to minimise any further spillage into the river, he said.
It was too dark last night to see how much rubbish had got into the river, and this would be assessed today.
Some debris could end up flowing into the Lower Oreti and from there into the New River Estuary.
Mr McKenzie said the truck was carrying about 150 litres of diesel at the time of the accident and "a reasonable proportion" of that had been lost.
An oil boom was placed across the river 3km-4km downstream from the bridge last night to try and catch both debris and fuel but the river was flowing too quickly for it to be effective, he said.
The impact of any fuel loss would be also be assessed today.
- NZPA
