A woman suffered moderate injuries after her car and a logging truck collided on a Waikato road this morning.
Truck driver Shane Runga was travelling to Te Akau on Waingaro Road when he said he saw the woman's car, a 2005 Nissan March, on his side of the road.
"I just said "sh**, no, no and then bang."
The right front of the woman's vehicle hit the left front of Mr Runga's logging truck, which was not laden at the time of the accident, about 3km southwest of Ngaruawahia shortly before 10am today.
The impact of the collision spun her vehicle around 360 degrees before it came to rest in a fence on the side of the road.
"If it was a head-on collision it would have been different," said Mr Runga.
"She was very lucky, it could have been a lot worse."
Mr Runga of Tokoroa said he jumped out of his truck and raced to the woman's car, which was smoking.
"She was in pain and the car was smoking so I ripped the battery out and got the fire extinguisher out of my truck," he said.
"Some guy in a car then came by and luckily, he had a first aid kit, he was awesome."
Waikato District Fire Commander Roy Breeze said the woman was trapped in her car for about 40 minutes as fire crews from Ngaruawahia and Hamilton used cutting equipment to free her.
The woman was taken to Waikato Hospital with what were understood to be moderate injuries to her back, right hip and arms.
Waingaro Road is likely to be reduced to one lane for some time at the accident scene as the truck is still to be removed.
By James Ihaka of the New Zealand Herald
