Cream Tanker-Trailer Rolls in Lewis Pass

About five tonnes of cream spilled from a tanker-trailer after it rolled on the Lewis Pass highway yesterday. The accident reduced the road to one lane for about four hours.

The driver of the Temuka Transport truck escaped injury when the trailer toppled on its side just after noon about 5km from the Hanmer Springs turn- off at Gabriels Gully.

Environment Canterbury’s (ECan) pollution hotline team raced to the Halliwai Stream, fearing the cream would get into waterways. Milk and cream are toxic to fish. Most of the cream flowed onto a wide grass and broom berm, filtering it and preventing it reaching a braid of the Waiau River about 40m away. ECan staff, who supervised the clean-up with the Fire Service, were confident any environmental damage would be minimal because of the distance from the river.

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