KEY POINTS:
The Fonterra driver whose milk tanker ploughed through two Hawkes Bay homes and into a third in December is back behind the wheel and is steering clear of the lollies that caused him to choke and veer off the road.
He's gone back to smoking instead.
When Gordon Beale drives past the site of the accident these days he always has a glance and wonders: "What the hell happened? What could have happened?"
Mr Beale, of Pahiatua, says he has been told by police that no charges will be laid, but Waipukurau Sergeant Ross Gilbert said yesterday police were still investigating.
Mr Beale said he had also been absolved of any wrongdoing by Fonterra and insurers.
He still could not recall "a damn thing" from the night of the accident.
The 61-year-old choked on a lolly and blacked out, sending the tanker veering off the road and through two houses before embedding itself in a third house on State Highway 2 just north of Waipawa.
"All I remember is waking up with shattered bits of windscreen all round me, and being covered in blood," said the man, who has 40 years' truck-driving experience. "I thought I was having a bad dream."
Emerging from his tanker with a broken nose and cuts to his face and arms, Mr Beale's first thoughts were for the safety of others.
"That was all I was worried about," he said. "Firefighters were running around, but all they could find was a [dead] cat."
Miraculously, only a 55-year-old man in the third house was hurt.
The day after he was discharged from hospital, Mr Beale returned to work but was relegated to workshop duties. He is now back behind the wheel on milk deliveries.
"I'm a stubborn bugger. I love driving. I've done it all my life."
The only difference now was that he had swapped lollies for cigarettes on long journeys.
Fonterra spokesman David Anderson said investigations by the company and its insurer found "no evidence to disbelieve" Mr Beale had simply choked on a lolly.
- NZPA
