Two serious incidents involving trucks have blocked highways in the Riverina on Sunday night and Monday morning.
A man was trapped for several hours early on Monday after a truck carrying wool bales rolled over on the Olympic Highway just north of Henty at about 6 am.
A spokesperson for Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) said a man in his 60s was treated at the scene before being lifted out by a rescue helicopter shortly after 8 am.
“RFS, SES police and ambos were all on the scene while the driver was trapped with the truck on its side,” she said.
“Paramedics stabilised the patient before transporting him.
“There was a minor HAZMAT incident with a ruptured diesel tank, which is why there was a cleanup and the highway was closed.”
Traffic in both directions was affected before the highway reopened under caution just before 9 am.
Meanwhile, last night near Hay, fire and rescue crews were called to a major blaze 10km east of town on the Sturt Highway, where a prime mover and two trailers were alight.
According to the FRNSW spokesperson, the B-double was “well alight” when crews arrived at around 9:30 pm on Sunday and it took the next hour to extinguish the blaze.
The truck was in the middle of the road, blocking the Sturt Highway in both directions.
While the vehicle and both trailers were completely burned out, no one was injured in the incident.
The cause of the blaze remains unknown and the driver was unsure of what he was carrying, believing it to have been “general goods”.