One of the occupants was alive when emergency services got to the scene but died as they were trying to get him out of the wreckage.
"That person died of their injuries while being worked on," Taylor said.
The truck driver was uninjured but "pretty shook up".
"This is a truck driver's worst nightmare. You're driving a large truck and if this happens you're pretty powerless to do anything about it. It takes the steering out and you're basically just taken for the ride once the impact has occurred."
It did not appear speed or alcohol were factors in the crash.
But police were looking closely at road bleed - where a surface becomes so smooth it loses the traction required to prevent hydroplaning. Rain had also fallen in the morning.
"There's a significant amount of tar bleed on the road and it's been like a skating rink."
South Waikato mayor Neil Sinclair was one of the first on the scene. Chillingly, there was still wreckage beside the road from a smash in the morning.
"My sympathies go out to the families involved. For anybody to lose their life like that is just tragic. I don't know how families would handle something like this close to Christmas."
Sinclair said the number of crashes in the area seemed to be on the rise and he wants to work with Taupo mayor David Trewavas and police to get to the bottom of it.
Taylor confirmed there were two other crashes on the same stretch of road yesterday and at least one of them was thought to have been caused by the slippery road surface.
The road would remain closed until any issues were resolved by contractors.
"It was a slight bend and it's slightly downhill going north but there's nothing extraordinary about the road that would cause you to lose control apart from it's quite a slippery surface.
"It's not a good way to start the Christmas season.
"There's another family or families who will have a very unhappy Christmas as a result."
- NZ Herald
