A truck driver begged the public to be more cautious around large tractor trailers after yet another collision yesterday injured a taxi driver.

The smash-up followed a rash of serious accidents involving heavy trucks, including a tourist on a rental cycle who was killed in a head-on collision with a tractor trailer, and the overturning of two water trucks in separate incidents.

Christopher Roque, a driver for Dynamic Excavation & Landscaping Ltd. was travelling west along St. John?s Road in Pembroke at around 10.30 a.m. when a maroon taxi coming from the opposite direction pulled across the centre line and struck the front of his truck.

Mr. Roque said it was ?pick on tractor trailer week?.

?People need to respect the trucks,? said Mr. Roque. ?People think that we are going fast. We are not going above the speed limit, we are just bigger.?

The front right corner of the taxi and its bonnet were badly mashed in, the windshield was damaged and there was a large scrape on the right side of the taxi toward the back. Glass and random car parts littered the ground around the two vehicles.

?My vehicle is 35 feet long. People have to be careful.?

Mr. Roque said he stopped as soon as he was struck.

?I?m sure he had chest injuries from the way the steering wheel and windshield is wrecked,? Mr. Roque said. ?He was in and out of consciousness before the ambulance came.?

Mr. Roque said the fire service were the first on the scene and the ambulance arrived a few minutes later.

?As usual the first emergency response units did a great job,? said Mr. Roque.

Bermuda Fire Service divisional officer Anthony Caisey told the that when firemen arrived the taxi driver had been unconscious for a short period of time.

?We believe the driver was knocked out,? said Mr. Caisey. ?We think he hit his head on the windscreen. He didn?t remember what had happened.

?From the time we were giving him care he was conscious and lucid. He remained that way until the ambulance came, although he did complain about some pain in left side. I don?t know what was found when he reached the hospital.?