Trucks involved in recent spate of crashes

The crash that seriously hurt Tony Araroa was one of several crashes in the region involving trucks recently.

Most recently, two women and one man were killed and one man critically injured in a crash involving a car and a logging truck on State Highway 1, north of Tokoroa, on Tuesday. All were American citizens, police said.

Police said their car had crossed the centre line before colliding with the truck.

The crash happened just hours after another involving a car and truck on Rotorua's State Highway 33. A 14-year-old passenger was thrown from the car, but she and the 22-year-old driver escaped serious injury and were discharged from hospital later that day.

In late December a crash took the lives of two men who recently moved to Rotorua from India.

They were travelling on State Highway 2 at Paengaroa when the VW Golf they were in and a tanker truck collided.

Last year crashes involving large trucks made up half of the Rotorua district's road toll.

Figures from the Ministry of Transport show the 2014 road toll for the Rotorua district was six, with three of those deaths involving large trucks. Those included 63-year-old Allen Anderson, who died in a crash involving his van and a logging truck on State Highway 30 on March 17 and two Australians who lost their lives in a horrific crash between a van and milk tanker on State Highway 5, near Reporoa, in November.

The Ministry of Transport said because of their large mass, trucks tended to be over-represented in serious crashes. "In recent years deaths from crashes involving trucks have made up around 15 to 19 per cent of the total road toll, while only about 6 per cent of the total distance travelled on New Zealand roads is travelled by trucks.

"In crashes involving trucks most of the deaths are not truck occupants, but rather the other road users ... This reflects the fact that in a collision between a heavy vehicle and a light vehicle or vulnerable road user there is a much higher probability of death or serious injury ..."

- Adriana Weber