A motorcyclist has died and another driver has been flown to hospital after a truck smashed into cars and a motorbike on the Bass Highway, in northern Tasmania.
The crash at Carrick, south-west of Launceston, shut the Bass Highway in both directions for most of the day.
Police said it was shortly after 6am and dark at the time when traffic started to slow and one vehicle ran into the back of another and caused a cascade of collisions.
"Unfortunately, the truck following that has not seen [the earlier crash] for whatever reason and hit those vehicles as well," Inspector Scott Flude said.
A motorcyclist, a man in his 50s, died at the scene and another man, the driver of a white Toyota Hilux, was seriously injured.
The injured man has been airlifted to Royal Hobart Hospital in a critical condition.
Two drivers of other cars received non-life-threatening injuries.
Police said the truck driver was not injured.
They said some of the car occupants were trapped in their vehicles for a time.
"It was dark; the weather was good; it's a long road; it's got good visibility so there's nothing particularly dangerous that I see in relation to this part of the road," Inspector Flude said.
He said it was a confronting scene for emergency crews.
"Unfortunately, police attend these scenes too much and of course upon arrival you see vehicles strewn everywhere, debris strewn everywhere, very horrific for attending emergency service personnel," he said.
"Because of the number of vehicles involved in this, this could have been worse, it's obviously terrible but it could have been worse just because of the number of vehicles involved."
Traffic was diverted for most of the day but the highway between Illawarra Road and Meander Valley Road reopened about 2pm.
Accident investigators have been at the scene.
