About 10,000 rounds of live ammunition had to be picked up off State Highway 6 yesterday after a pallet pitched off the back of a Buchanan Transport truck heading to Queenstown just before midday.
Constable Patrick Greaney said the spill occurred when the truck was carting a mixed load of goods comprising wood and steel products, plus a couple of pallets loaded with shotgun ammunition.
One lane of the highway through the Kawarau Gorge, on the Queenstown side of the Roaring Meg, was closed for about an hour as police, volunteers and Buchanan Transport staff scrambled over the road and down the roadside bank to collect the scattered cartridges.
A Buchanan Transport spokesman, who wished not to be named, said the incident seemed to have occurred because the truck driver ''thought'' the load was secured.
''From what I can gather, the strops he had over it had come loose and the pallet had come off when he was coming around a corner.''
Const Greaney said some of the cartridges had been run over by cars before being retrieved, but had not ''gone off''.
He estimated the cost of the pallet to be ''probably thousands of dollars, probably more''.
He said he thought there were about 250 boxes of cartridges, many of which had split open.
Police, including the Commercial Vehicle Investigation unit, were investigating and charges were likely, he said.
