Weather perfect, but traffic at a standstill

The crashed truck reduced traffic to a standstill between Orewa and Puhoi on State Highway 1. Picture / Geoff Dale

Holiday traffic was brought to a standstill for several kilometres of State Highway 1 north of Orewa yesterday after an accident left a truck blocking most of the road.

While traffic from other North Island holiday destinations moved smoothly, Inspector Darroch Todd of the police northern communications centre said the situation north of Auckland was a total shambles.

"It doesn't get much worse," he said.

The truck rolled about 1pm, colliding with an oncoming car and blocking much of the road. Four people were taken to North Shore Hospital with minor to moderate injuries.

The highway remained open but traffic from both directions became heavily congested. Vehicles were still queued for several kilometres by evening.

A crane lifted the truck to the side of the road about 5pm, reducing the highway to one lane. The road was fully opened just before 8pm, with southbound traffic still described by police as very heavy.

Mr Todd said the good weather made for heavier traffic, but problems were typical of the area north of Orewa.

"It doesn't matter what time of year it is.

"It's the main access road heading north, so it's always going to be chaos.

"And when the weather is this good, there's obviously more people out."

He said frustrated drivers had resorted to overtaking in the queue, putting themselves and others at risk.

Police from the Coromandel area and south of Auckland reported normal traffic flows.