A 1.5-tonne log which fell off a logging truck last Friday ended up in the middle of a work site - prompting immediate changes to the way logs are carried.
Contractors laying a fibre optic cable up the East Coast along State Highway 35 arrived to work about 7am to see the log on the side of the road.
FX networks manager Colin Barry said it was lucky no one was there at the time.
"I wouldn't like to be doing 100kmh along the road and suddenly there's a log in front of you. It's pretty dangerous - imagine if you had a family coming along and all of a sudden you hit a log."
The log was picked up later the same day and was taken to the port.
Logs are all stamped with identifying symbols that show the log crew and forestry company but red paint had been placed over those symbols on the log that fell off the truck.
Eastland Wood Council chief executive Trevor Helson said the driver had painted the red mark on the end of the log to mark it as a hazard on the side of the road.
The driver reported the incident immediately and was very distressed that it had happened, he said.
An investigation into the incident concluded last night. It looked at the truck trailer involved and the position of the bolsters and chains.
The chains were all in place but at this time of year the spring sap made the logs very slippery - this was a pruned log with no bark or knots, said Mr Helson.
As was normal practice, the log truck driver had stopped twice and tightened the chains en route.
Hikurangi Forest Farms general manager forestry Paul Ainsworth said the log that fell had been loaded with the large end facing the rear.
"The cartage of all pruned logs has been put on hold at present until cartage contractors have been informed of changed procedures to load the logs with the large end facing the other way to reduce the chances of logs slipping towards the rear."
Mr Ainsworth said his company was very concerned.
"We don't like any logs ending up on the road."
While it was a very unfortunate incident, it was not a common occurrence, he said.
At least one million logs a year are trucked along State Highway 35 from the forests up the Coast to Eastland Port. In total, of 200 truck movements a day at the port, half to three-quarters of them travel from the East Coast.
Mr Ainsworth said that in the 10 years Hikurangi had been harvesting, he was aware of only three incidents where a log had come off the back of a trailer.
- By Sophie Rishworth of the Gisborne Herald
