Labour Dept to investigate truck crash

A truck-on-truck crash in which Taupo forestry worker Mark Reynolds was killed and two other men were admitted to hospital could be investigated by the Department of Labour.

A Mazda light truck collided with a larger logging truck on a remote private road near Lake Taupo on Friday.

The road and the vast forests surrounding it are owned by Lake Taupo Forest Trust.

Police are investigating the accident. No charges have been laid and an officer suggested it would become a Department of Labour inquiry.

"If it is a private road, then the normal road rules don't apply," Inspector Dave Parsons of the road policing support unit said.

In theory, people driving on a private road could drive as fast as they wanted. But Parsons said dangerous driving on a private road would still lead to prosecution, probably through an agency like OSH.

Bay Trust Rescue Helicopter pilot Todd Dunham attended the scene and said Reynolds, a passenger in one of the trucks, had died by the time they arrived.

The driver of the larger truck was unharmed but the other driver was taken to Waikato Hospital with serious injuries.

Another man in the smaller truck went to Rotorua Hospital. Bill Liley, an adviser for Lake Taupo Forest Trust, said he was saddened by the death of 49-year-old Mark Reynolds, a Taupo resident who worked in the forest.

Liley said all three men in the smaller truck were members of a forestry crew and had just finished their shift.