18 Jan 2015

Police investigate dramatic Auckland crash

10:02 pm on 18 January 2015

Police are investigating a dramatic crash in Auckland, in which a large truck plunged metres onto an Auckland motorway early this morning.

They said the driver of the fertiliser truck failed to take a corner at Auckland's Spaghetti Junction, crashed through a barrier, and landed on the Port Link section of motorway below.

Inspector Willie Taylor said the police would be checking the truck carefully and interviewing the driver to establish exactly what happened.

He said the structural damage to the road barrier would be repaired tonight.

The director of the trucking company, Brett McHardie said the driver had escaped remarkably unharmed given how serious the crash was.

He said he was taken to Auckland Hospital.

"He's doing remarkably well, he's got a suspected cracked vertebrae but not confirmed, and that's the only real injury I mean other than bruising and so on and so forth, so he's come out of it exceptionally well," said Mr McHardie.

Mr McHardie said the company would also be investigating how the accident happened.