Traffic mayhem after hitchhiker quizzed

Trucks blocked the Northern Motorway near Constellation Drive for about five hours yesterday. Witnesses say the crash happened when a police officer stopped to speak to a hitchhiker standing on the side of the motorway. A truck following the police car stopped behind it, but a large truck-and-trailer unit ploughed into a concrete truck in the other lane, which in turn slammed into the stationary truck, flipping it. The driver of that truck, Bob Smith, of Whangarei, said he got a "hell of a fright" when the truck ploughed into him and flipped his vehicle on to its side. He was not hurt and no one else was injured.

23 December 1997