A Matamata company is investigating after “shocking” dashcam footage of one of its trucks overtaking on the wrong side of the road was posted online.
It is not clear from the 29-second video, posted anonymously on social media on Tuesday night, why the truck entered the oncoming lane.
The caption of the post said it happened on the Kaimai Range, which is between Bay of Plenty and Waikato and crossed via State Highway 29.
A timestamp on the video suggested it was filmed on Tuesday afternoon.
The video shows the vehicle with the dashcam vehicle driving in the far left lane as cars pass it in a passing lane.
Across the double yellow lines are two oncoming lanes.
With the passing lane running out, a white car overtakes the filming vehicle and the truck uses the oncoming lane to overtake both vehicles.
The truck re-enters the left lane in front of both vehicles as the passing lane ends, and an oncoming vehicle rounds the corner ahead.
Screenshot from footage of a truck overtaking a car on the Kaimai Range between Bay of Plenty and Waikato.
The post’s caption identifies the truck as from J Swap, which is a contracting company based in Matamata.
“Jswap hard up it down the kaimais,” the comment said.
There were more than 150 comments on the video, with some calling the move “dangerous” and “shocking”.
Another said it would be interesting to see what the camera inside the J Swap truck showed. “[The driver] may not have had a choice … pretty bloody scary”.
The Bay of Plenty Times asked J Swap via email if it was aware of the incident, how it was being handled with the driver, if the company had had dashcam footage to show its driver’s point of view, and what led the driver to make this manoeuvre to the wrong side of the road.
In response, J Swap said the matter was currently under investigation.
Police confirmed they were aware of the incident and were making inquiries.
5 comments
This driver should be sacked!!!
Posted on 09-01-2025 08:39 | By Bruja
unless it can be proven that he/she had brake failure which FORCED him/her to do this then he/she needs sacking and they need to not be allowed an H/T licence again....ever. NO excuses other than proven brake failure.
Shocking
Posted on 09-01-2025 09:05 | By Thats Nice
Why is the white car not in the left lane? A bit more to this I'm guessing but obviously the truck shouldn't be passing here.
Hmmm
Posted on 09-01-2025 09:18 | By Let's get real
I'm just a little surprised that it wasn't a logging truck.... They live by their own rules.
Right or wrong
Posted on 09-01-2025 09:36 | By Ajs
I hope Swamp publishes the onboard track footage that lead up to the situation I suspect the White Car tried to block the truck getting an head of it .
Just another one of those infuriating passing Lane maneuvers that happens in Tauranga
I can't say I wasn't there
Posted on 09-01-2025 17:22 | By SCORPS
From the dash cam I can only see what's shown from the vehicle but I didn't see before hand leading up to this driver of the truck overtaking that white vehicle! So we need to view everything that happened
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