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A Rangiora truck driver has survived a spectacular crash which left his cab “barely recognisable” and looking like it had been cut in half.
Robert Anderson, 58, was flown to Nelson Hospital by the Summit Rescue Helicopter with moderate chest and head injuries after yesterday’s accident 8km north of Murchison, and was in a stable condition in Nelson Hospital this morning.
The truck and semi-trailer, owned by Daniel Smith Industries and carrying a 57-tonne crane unit, overturned on State Highway 6 at 11am, blocking the road and causing a traffic backlog.
The crane was left upside down in a paddock next to the highway and the trailer came to rest upside down across the state highway.
Mr Anderson said from his hospital bed today that he remembered little of the crash.
“I remember slipping on my side really fast that’s about it. I was out to it after that; it was like someone pulled the carpet from out under me.
“I remember the truck there one moment and it went flip in half a second.”
The first thing he remembered was being in a paddock with the rubber from the windscreen still wrapped around his neck.
Mr Anderson said he was heading south carrying the $6 million crane to Rangiora, and he was planning to have breakfast in Murchison.
Sore and bruised, he was to be discharged from hospital today,
Constable Mike McDougall, of Murchsion police, said Mr Anderson was pulled from the cab by those who were first at the accident scene.
Mr McDougall said the cause of the crash was not known, but the truck-and-trailer unit rolled going around a moderate bend.
The highway was closed for an hour because of the crash, and traffic was then diverted through a single lane or through a paddock, he said. Some trucks had had to wait longer.
Mr McDougall said the trailer was removed from the middle of the road about 4pm yesterday, at which stage traffic was still down to one lane, but a larger crane had to be taken to the site to recover the crane today.
He described the accident site as “a big jumble” and said there were 58 wheels on the truck and trailer.
Helicopter pilot Tim Douglas-Clifford said the cab was “barely recognisable” and looked like it had been cut in half.
“If he was a cat with nine lives, I’d say he’s probably used up eight of them.”
Mr Anderson was treated at the scene by the Murchison St John ambulance team and a paramedic on the rescue helicopter before being flown to Nelson Hospital.
