Truck driver Shane Runga was on his way to pick up his last load of the day when he says he came across a car driving towards him on his side of the road.
"I just said 'shit, no, no!' and then bang!"
Mr Runga, 33, of Tokoroa, was southbound on Waingaro Rd about 3km southwest of Ngaruawahia when he said he saw a 2005 Nissan March, driven by a woman, moving towards him as he rounded a bend.
The front right side of the woman's vehicle collided with the front left of his unladen logging truck yesterday morning.
The impact of the collision spun her vehicle around 360 degrees before it came to rest in a fence on the side of the road. It was Mr Runga's first accident in four years of driving trucks.