KEY POINTS:
A motorist involved in a minor crash was about to get back into his car when a truck steamrolled over the top of it in the Bay of Plenty this morning.
The car was crushed and the truck crashed off the road and 20m down a bank on SH2 at Whakamarama.
Details on the crash were sketchy today as officers from the police Commercial Vehicle Investigation Unit were still investigating at the scene.
Senior Constable Chris Hills said it appeared that the driver of the car, a 34-year-old Te Puke man, had struck severe surface flooding about 5am and gone off the road and into a road sign.
A passer-by in another vehicle managed to tow the car back onto the road, where the truck and trailer unit mowed it down.
St John Ambulance Team Manager Simon Campbell said the driver of the car suffered minor shoulder injuries, possibly a dislocation, and may have just been clipped by the truck as it went past.
The driver of the truck, a 65-year-old man from Maketu, suffered severe injuries including chest trauma and a fractured clavicle, he said.
"It looks like the accident was a result of flooding on the road," Mr Campbell said.
After crushing the car, the truck careering off the road down a 20m bank, but the driver was able to get out of the truck and started ascending the bank before St John Ambulance reached him.
A Caltex Whakamarama employee who wished to be known only as Allan, started work at 4.30am shortly before the crash.
He said an ambulance pulled up under the service station forecourt - possibly to get shelter from the rain. He could see a man lying in the back and was later told by a customer that he had been the driver of the car.
"He looked all right, had a neck brace on, but other than that he looked all right.
"From what I've seen of the car or heard about the car, he should buy a Lotto ticket."
Morning traffic was being slowed and diverted around large areas of flooding on SH2.
Last month, traffic was diverted for nearly two hours on April 16 when a small slip flowed into the same patch of road where the crash happened.
Northbound traffic was diverted for nearly two hours just south of the Whakamarama shops to just south of the Omokoroa turn-off, while a digger cleared the road.
- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES
