Pedestrian hurt as truck crash blocks port access

A crash involving a container truck, a van and a pedestrian which closed a main route from Auckland's port yesterday afternoon has reinforced calls for safer and easier access from the waterfront.

The drivers of both vehicles escaped with bruises, but a young woman hit by the van while trying to cross The Strand in Parnell was taken by ambulance to Auckland City Hospital with minor injuries.

An ambulance spokesman said it appeared that the truck - which left the port with a load of steel at about 12.30pm - hit the van, which then struck the woman.

It is understood the van may have earlier come to a stop in a bid to avoid hitting her, although the police commercial vehicle investigation unit is still examining causes of the crash.

The truck rolled on its side and a female health and safety consultant to advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi is believed to have helped the driver out of his upturned cab.

Both carriageways of The Strand were closed to traffic until about 4pm, when one lane was re-opened.

Auckland Council staff were called in to clean up spilled diesel.

Kada Commercial Furniture owner John Gilbert, an occupier of a historic building on the bend, said another container truck had crashed before at the same spot, but plans to realign the road and correct its difficult camber had been gathering dust for "a zillion years".

Traffic was also disrupted on the Southern Motorway after a crash involving a truck, a bus and a car blocked two of the three northbound lanes between Khyber Pass and Gillies Ave for about two hours from 2.20pm. No one was injured.