KEY POINTS:
Tradesmen working on a building site watched in amazement as a truck careered driverless down a hill yesterday.
The truck - carrying masonry bricks for a house on the site, in Tauriko, 10km south-west of Tauranga - shot 500m down several streets before hitting a jetty and plunging into a lake.
Phil Krauts, site foreman at the truck's destination in Rexford Heights, said it was an unbelievable sight.
"As the driver jumped off the truck, the handbrake got caught on his shorts and then the truck took off," he said.
"It was unbelievable. It was a miracle it didn't hit any houses."
He was sure the truck was going to plough into a new house.
"It could have gone straight through it, but it hit the kerb and that jerked the wheel."
The truck rolled down Rexford Heights, where it was parked, through Hastings Rd, across several vacant sections on to Caldera Close, then down Tarn Close.
Mr Krauts said it was the driver's first day on the job and his first delivery of the day.
The driver had a prosthetic leg and it was probably because of that he didn't try to get back into the cab.
"The driver started moving towards the truck and so did the blocklayer, then the blocklayer stopped because he thought the driver was going to run but he couldn't as he only had one leg."
He said the 8.30am crash caused a four-hour delay to work.
Senior Sergeant Ian Campion said the truck destroyed several trees, a lamp standard, a jetty, and several power boxes and telecommunication cabling.
He said the driver parked and got out to speak to a contractor and the truck began to roll.
"By the time he had spotted what had happened it was too late," Mr Campion said.
Bethlehem College student Kiri Hirini was about to leave for school when she heard the truck go past her Tarn Close home.
"I was just about to drive to school so I'm glad I didn't."
Her neighbour called an ambulance, not knowing whether anyone was in the truck.
- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES
