It is the second crash involving Chinese tourists at the same place within a month, although the April 2 crash involved only one car, which veered across the road from the Moeraki Boulders turn-off, hit a ditch and rolled.
Yesterday's crash was also at the Moeraki Boulders turn-off and closed State Highway 1 for about an hour, the third time Easter holiday traffic had been affected south of Oamaru.
Senior Constable Stefan Whitehira, of Palmerston, said the rental van carrying eight tourists was travelling north, pulled to the centre of the road into a turning lane to turn into the Boulders.
The driver then drove out in front of a Toyota Landcruiser being driven south by a 29-year-old Dunedin man.
He swerved to avoid the van, clipped the right front corner of the vehicle and lost control. The Landcruiser rolled and the driver received moderate but not life-threatening injuries, he said.
The Otago Regional Rescue Helicopter took the injured man to Dunedin.
None of the tourists was injured. Snr Const Whitehira said the driver would be charged.
''They [the tourists] were very lucky not to be seriously injured or worse if the [Landcruiser] driver had not swerved to avoid them,'' he said.
On Thursday, SH1 was closed at Waianakarua, after a fatal crash involving a Waianakarua man and then at Maheno on Good Friday to Saturday morning, because of flooding.
