Fiery crash kills truck driver

Police say this truck veered off the road and ended on its side in a shallow ditch before catching alight. Photo / Christine Cornege

The cause of a fiery crash that closed parts of SH1 early yesterday, and the identity of the truck driver killed in the accident were still unknown last night.

Waikato police communications manager Andrew McAlley said disaster victim-identification specialists were last night working to identify the truck driver killed in the Waikato crash about 1am yesterday.

The driver's name should be known today.

Police said the southbound B-Train veered off the road to the left, crashed through a barrier and ended up on its side in a shallow ditch about 16km north of Huntly before it caught alight.

Sergeant Juliet Burgess of the Huntly strategic traffic unit said the blaze complicated matters for responding emergency services as hazardous material data sheets detailing the vehicle's load were in the front of the cab.

"The fire was extinguished by firefighters but several drums that spilt out of the curtain-side rear trailer required identifying to assess what, if any, threat they posed," she said.

The crash closed north and southbound lanes on SH1 for several hours.

Mr McAlley said a log showed the driver had left an Auckland trucking depot about 11.15pm.

"The preliminary serious-crash and commercial-vehicle-units investigations have been done, and now they will be studying the data from those.

"So, again, comment on causation of the crash is quite a way off."