By Jamie Morton and Kiri Gillespie
St John ambulance officers were themselves taken to Tauranga Hospital after the vehicle they were driving crashed in the Kaimai Range yesterday, shutting down State Highway 29.
The officers were returning from Hamilton when their vehicle crashed onto its side near Soldiers Rd shortly after 4pm yesterday, blocking the highway for an hour and a half.
The female and male Hamilton-based St John officers were taken to hospital with serious and minor injuries respectively, but were later discharged.
Tauranga St John operations manager Ross Clarke said they were travelling in a St John command unit – a truck with specialist communications equipment used for big events such as music festivals.
There were no patients on board.
It is understood the crash happened after an incident with the unit’s tyres, and St John were still investigating the cause today.
Mr Clarke said the officers did "an excellent job in controlling the situation and controlling the vehicle to prevent a more serious accident".
No other vehicles were involved in the crash.
News of the crash and road closure was announced to hundreds of people at the Tauranga Races, advising Kaimai-bound drivers – including Cambridge-based horse owners – to take their time before heading home.
Senior Sergeant Stu Graham said traffic heading out of Tauranga needed to travel through Rotorua or Waihi instead.
The road was closed about ninety minutes before traffic was allowed through one lane in five minute intervals.
The crash came less than three weeks after a Tauranga St John ambulance officer was injured after a car slammed into an ambulance with a patient on board near the Maungatapu Bridge on December 19.
In another serious crash yesterday, a man had to be cut from his car by firefighters after a three-vehicle crash at Waihi shortly after 1pm.
A St John spokesperson said the man sustained a fractured femur and was flown to Waikato Hospital by the Whitianga-based Westpac Rescue Helicopter service.
Four other people received lesser injuries in the crash, which had to be attended by Whangamata and Katikati St John paramedics after Waihi staff were called to Thames.
Meanwhile, a second Bay of Plenty motorist has been clocked at speeds of more than 170km/h.
After seeing in the New Year, a 20-year-old Tauranga man was nabbed doing 176km/h on State Highway 29 near Tauranga at 4.15am on Saturday.
"He was on a restricted licence and had two bald tyres at the back," sergeant Mike Owen of Te Puke Highway Patrol said.
"His passenger was heavily intoxicated and also aged 20."
