EARLY TUESDAY MORNING, NEAR HAMILTON, NEW ZEALAND, a fully-loaded tanker carrying diesel fuel collided with a tractor-trailer truck on State Highway 1.  The crash led to an explosion and fire involving the tanker’s load.

Waikato Times photo

Miraculously, both drivers escaped the flames.  Waikato Hospital says the driver of the freight truck, 51, has a chest injury and is in a stable condition in the emergency department. The tanker driver, 28, has a minor head injury and is unlikely to be admitted to hospital. 

 The Hamilton fire brigade was unable to mount much of a fire attack until additional pumpers arrived from neighboring departments.  Even then, the heat was so intense that they were unable to get very close to the fire.

A nearby dairy voluntarily dispatched some tank trucks to use as water shuttles for the fire units.

NZ Fire Service photo

The trucks were traveling in opposite directions, but it was not a head-on collision.  The highway is closed all day today for cleanup of the wreckage and to rebuild about 80 yards of roadway that was destroyed by the fire.

The Waikato Times has the STORY.

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