Lights... Action... Camera

Click Pic to Embigulate

The driver of this fuel tanker & trailer had an onboard electrical failure early this morning.

He also got a hell of a fright...

With no lights, and no power, he ended up off the road with the trailer blocking a lane.

The rig suffered minor damage, having ended up in a soft, muddy drain.

He did well. There is a bridge 100 metres ahead of him. It is very hard.

I couldn't use a flash, not wanting to be vapourised, and causing a few heart attacks at the site.

At 4am in the morning, there was virtually no traffic, and the recovery was straight forward.

The trailer was disconnected, and hauled away, then the tanker winched back onto the road.

So much for the Sunday sleep in....

A Bum Steer

Head Office is putting on the pressure.

We have been toiling away rearranging the potholes before winter really sets in.

I have been working with another crew for the last week, and yesterday my normal workmates tried to con me into going to a truck accident on State Highway 4.

It was getting cold, and no way did I feel like a late night, so I told them I was on vitally important pothole installation work, and wished them well.

There was a good chance of an early day...

NZ Herald
"One person has been hurt after a stock truck rolled, spilling cattle onto State Highway 4 in the Waikato.

Police said the truck crashed about 1.30pm, just south of Tikitiki Road near Kopaki, about 22km south of Te Kuiti.

The driver of the truck was unhurt and no other cars were involved.

However, one member of the public was hurt by one of the animals, which pushed him through a fence, police said.

Some cattle had been killed or injured.

The highway is blocked and diversions are in place at Pukerimu Road to the north and Aratoro to the south."


It seems that it was a Stock truck's trailer that went over, and one of our Ruapehu based workers was chased up a bank and pushed through a fence by a very pissed off Steer. He was bruised and battered but O.K.

Meanwhile I toiled on.

I passed them coming back, as I finally headed home.

In the dark, and very late ...

A Night Out

Click pic for bigness

So Friday is looking good.

In time honoured Kiwi tradition we try and rip through our work so we can knock off early.

I planned to visit the fleshpots of Piopio, there to sup ale.

The driver of this truck put paid to that idea...

An hour after I arrived home I was off again, to Awakino.


The container truck had come to grief near Pay Cart Corner.

(In the old days the roadworkers from miles around, met the paymaster here, and got their brown paper pay envelopes. The pub is handy too ...)

Once again the cranes took up most of the road, which we had to close for 1/2 hour periods, while we lifted the various sections of the truck and load out of the way.


There are no detours around this area, we just have to try and get a lane cleared as fast as we safely can.


At night the scene cane be quite surreal, and very difficult to photograph as you can see.


The driver was shaken (& stirred) but is OK.

The local pub sent out some fish and chips, (and delicious they were too) ... so at least I had a chance to dine out.

Not quite what I planned though ...

News Story (short term link)
(Note this spot is a long way from the Awakino Gorge!)

Used Cars

click pic to biggify

Last night, this car transporter left the road, just south of Piopio.

Obligingly, he ended up well off the road, and so I slept the frosty night through in my warm bed.

Today we had to recover it, and there was no option but to close the road, and put a lengthy detour in place.

You can see why.

The crane takes up the whole road, and Murphy's Law states that there must always be at least a 11kv power line in the way.


The job went pretty smoothly, but it takes a while, even if things go well.

I did offer a couple of hundred bucks for the Range Rover Vogue and was willing to toss in a few kilo's of onions from last weeks roll over on State Highway 4.



I think they are still considering my generous offer ....

It Was A Dark & Soggy Night ...

Who's been a busy boy then ....

This truck carrying a 12 metre long container of scrap fell over about 200 metres beyond the scene of a furniture truck's misadventure a while back.

The driver, wearing a seatbelt was unscathed. Had he not, he would probably have ended up in the passengers side footwell and would have suffered for it.

But what a mess!

The salvage truck winched the container and trailer off the road.
Then the heavens opened and it was a dark and soggy night.

It rained so hard it was pointless trying to take photographs.


Since then a couple of guys have been refilling the container with a small Hiab.

The one with the latest in safety footwear is talking to the driver of the Side-lifter which will take it away.

It was good to see it go ...

Throw in a hell of a storm ... (later!)
and it has been a busy time out there...

The Running Of The Bulls

We had a stock truck trailer fall over this afternoon.

27 bulls fled for the hills.

This was following a breakout attempt by others near the Fart residence a little earlier.

When I got home they had tromped on the water line and sabotaged the supply.

There is something going on .....

Bad Day At Jesus Rock

slightly stressed, blurry photo.
It's a long weekend in the north of the island.

Auckland Anniversary Weekend.

This means that the townies can hurtle south to various playspots, demolishing fences and rolling into ditches along the way.

It kicked off to a fine start when the phone went at some ungodly hour early Sunday morning.

A loaded furniture truck had rolled off the road south of Piopio.

It scattered it's load at a local landmark, "The Jesus Rock"

In the drizzly night it took hours to salvage everything.

There were three in the cab of the truck, unbelievably there was only one briefly hospitalised.

It was late afternoon before the truck was finally hauled away.

This morning a car demolished our letter box.
And ...
They all have to go home yet ...

Worm Fodder

The CB started to chatter as I neared work this morning.
The truckies were talking about an accident.

My spirits rose, a change from the daily pot hole feeding.

Then I heard it was a truck carting to the local "worm farm."

Some of these trucks cart foul & evil smelling bits of dead chickens and stuff.

My foot lifted a bit off the gas.

Cleaning up after previous accidents have become legendary topics.

Roadworkers heaving and gagging as they raked up putrid chicken carcasses. clothing that has become so rank you have to throw it away afterwards...

I decided to have two pies for breakfast while I could still get them down.

Over the road from the shop they were loading up the damaged truck.

It didn't look too bad.

When I arrived at the scene the remains of the trailer were only good for scrap.

Happily though the load was mulch for composting.

Sweet smelling and not unpleasant.

The digger soon got rid of the remains.

The pies stayed put ...

"Whoopsie"

This Fuel tanker had a bit of a "whoopsie" this morning.

As I headed into work, the CB started to liven up as other truckies warned each other about an overturned trailer.

The truck and trailer was heading north and got into trouble on a nasty little corner about 4 kilometres north of the Awakino Tunnel.

This corner is narrow, and traffic seems to shy away a bit from the concrete wall on the other side.

With two trucks going the other way the driver must have moved a little too far over in his brand new truck.

The trailer ran off the road and went over. Luckily it didn't pull the truck off too.

Modern tankers are strong and don't usually leak much in this sort of accident.


While news reports had thousands of litres of diesel pouring into the Awakino River, we were in fact collecting it in scrounged buckets, and containers and putting it into 200 litre drums.

The load has to be pumped into another tanker. A pump driven by an air compressor is used, and everything is earthed in case of static electricity causing a spark.

We had a truckload of sand and bags in case we had to buld a dam, but the load was slowly but successfully transferred, with a loss of about 340 litres, from the 16,500 litres he had on board.

The trailer had lifting eyes fitted to it, so it was an "easy pick" as the crane drivers say.

It was a bit sad to see the damage to a trailer which had only done 148 kilometres.

Still it was a long day. Miles from the pie shop, a knocked over coffee flask, and no smoking, saw to that...

News Report NZH

Face Down, Outside The Pub...

The centre of the North Island has been hit by ice and snow.

That means road closures, and increased traffic through our highway.

We have had an incessant stream of trucks rumbling past all night.

A lot of them don't come this way much, don't know the road, and we nearly always get an incident or two.

It's a bit rich though when they try and demolish the pub.

It was freezing cold when I took this photo of a truck and trailer lying on it's side outside the entrance to the Awakino Hotel Beer Garden. The photo is a bit blurry, - condensation on the lens.


He lost the plot coming down the hill, got into the grass, took out a sign, and over it went. There were two on board, both got shoulder injuries.

At least it ended up off the road which saves everybody a lot of hassle.

With the tractor unit righted, you can see how much of a close run thing this was ...

Is nothing sacred?

Close Shave

This morning a trailer overturned on a sharp corner north of the Awakino Gorge Tunnel.

As truck accidents go, this was an easy one.

He was loaded with baled wood shavings, used as calf bedding.
The bales are relatively light and could be man handled, and a light crane popped the trailer back onto it's wheels.

They had a magic truck that could drop it's container onto the road to be loaded.
So it all went smoothly, on a nice sunny morning...

From The Roadworker's Log...

click for bigger photo's

When you first arrive at an accident scene and see the rescue helicopter, it is with mixed feelings.


Obviously someone is injured, but it is good to see professionals on the job. Medical help is scarce in rural communities.


Here we have a logging truck and trailer on it's side. The trailer is over the bank, most of the logs also, but quite a few are on the road. With the truck across the road like this nobody is going anywhere soon.


Before the helicopter has lifted off, cleanup begins, engine oil being dealt with here.


The helicopter leaves for Taranaki Base Hospital, sometimes Waikato.


A digger is rounded up, and ushered through the banked up, waiting traffic.
It is offloaded onto the road.


It pushes the logs off the road


And as it is starts to get dark, lifts the truck onto it's wheels


The truck is dragged over to the north lane of the road, and now we can let traffic through till the crane arrives.


The crane has to lift the trailer onto the wrecked truck


Some hours later, the truck is finally loaded onto a transporter and taken away.
The road is cleaned up and made safe and then it's Home Time!


Then at dawn this morning the logs are recovered and loaded onto another truck.
A truck mounted grab does this, you can see the operator sitting up there under the lights.

At lunch we read about it in the paper (probably short term link)

Then it's away to clear slips on Mt. Messenger.

Oh it's all fun on the road....