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A truckie has been flown to hospital with critical injuries after a head-on smash with a bigger truck near Taupo.
The crash happened shortly after 9am on State Highway 1, about 4km north of Wairakei.
One of the trucks involved was a full truck and trailer unit, while the other was a smaller truck, police said.
A spokesperson for Lion Foundation rescue helicopter said the male driver of the smaller truck, from Auckland, was flown to Taupo hospital in a critical condition, and then flown to Waikato hospital by a specialist trauma team.
Senior Sergeant Murray Hamilton said the other truck driver, also an Auckland man, was taken by ambulance to Taupo hospital with serious injuries.
"The smaller truck which was heading south on SH1, as it's rounded a moderate left-hand corner for some reason has been on the wrong side of the road, and then it collided head-on with northbound truck and trailer unit," he said.
The highway would be closed at least until 3.30pm, Mr Murray said, while recovery crews cleared the trucks off the road.
- NZPA
