Sergeant Matt Lee, of Dunedin, said there were six notable crashes reported to police yesterday, with five of those occurring within the same two-and-a-half hour window yesterday morning.
At 7.45am at the old Brighton Road on-ramp on the southern motorway, a 48-year-old man trying merge in was blinded by sunstrike, causing him to hit the brakes to slow down.
The 43-year-old driver behind him did not have time to react and tried to steer around the right side of the vehicle.
His efforts failed and he went into the rear of the vehicle in front and shunted it into the barrier.
The vehicle then flipped.
There were no reported injuries to the two men, Sgt Lee said.
As a result, the left hand lane was closed for some time.
At 8.19am, south of the same on-ramp, while the left-hand lane was closed, another person was affected with sunstrike and got into a nose-to-tail that involved two other vehicles.
This closed the right hand lane as well until the three vehicles could be driven away.
‘‘There was a reported seatbelt abrasion to a child and minor cuts to an adult's hand in one of the vehicles,’’ Sgt Lee said.
At 9.12am, a Mosgiel man attempting to avoid the motorway delays tried to take a back way to Dunedin.
While heading along Quarry Rd, Mosgiel, the man failed to give way to a passing bus and ran into the side of it.
This closed this section of Quarry Rd for 30 minutes until the vehicle could be towed from the scene.
The bus was not carrying any passengers at the time, Sgt Lee said.
At 9.50am, a crash between two vehicles at the intersection between Ravenswood and Seaview Rds closed that section of road for some time until one of the vehicles could be towed from the scene.
Ten minutes later in Brockville Rd, Brockville, a man sneezed, causing him to swerve.
When he tried to correct himself, his vehicle veered into a tree on the side of the road.
There were no reported injuries to the two occupants of the vehicle.
While the road was not blocked, the footpath was until the vehicle could be towed, Sgt Lee said.
At 6.30pm, emergency services were called to a crash in Main South Rd, Green Island after a two vehicle crash.
A 48-year-old man was stopped and indicating left to turn into his driveway when a 17-year-old teenager crashed into the back of his car.
The 17-year-old was affected by the evening sunstrike, Sgt Lee said.
The impact shunted the 48-year-old man’s vehicle forward into a third vehicle on the road.
There were no reported injuries to any of the drivers.
‘‘So there was sunstrike early morning and then sunstrike late in the day as well,’’ Sgt Lee said.
