The driver of a logging truck is lucky he did not end up as a "pincushion", following a crash on State Highway 1 yesterday morning, a witness says.
Emergency services were called to the Main South Rd, East Taieri, just after 9am following a number of calls about a logging truck which had left the road and come to rest in a macrocarpa hedge.
Tony Bremner was a few vehicles behind the truck at the time of the accident. "I looked up to my left and saw all this debris going up in the air".
Mr Bremner, also a logging truck driver, stopped and ran up to the cab with a first-aid kit to help the driver.
"I expected to see a pincushion in there," he said.
With the assistance of other motorists who helped move branches which were blocking the door, the driver was helped out of the vehicle and the engine turned off, with "diesel pouring out of the ruptured tank".
A large number of logs had been thrown from the trailer.
The man was more concerned about his missing Jack Russell dog, Bouncer, than his own injuries. Bouncer was flung from the cab and last seen wandering north along SH1.
The logging trailer had gone under the cab and pushed the whole vehicle up into the hedge. The driver was later taken to Dunedin Hospital with serious injuries, a St John spokeswoman said.
Acting Senior Fire Station Officer at Mosgiel, Martin Jansen, said after surveying the damage he advised the driver to buy a Lotto ticket.
"For him to survive was nothing short of a miracle."
Serious-crash investigators from Dunedin Police were investigating the incident yesterday.
