{"id":419992,"date":"2026-05-09T21:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T21:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/419992\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T21:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T21:10:12","slug":"fundraiser-for-driver-tops-13k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/419992\/","title":{"rendered":"Fundraiser for driver tops $13k"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A fundraiser set up to support the long-term recovery of a truck driver seriously injured in a crash has topped $13,000.<\/p>\n<p>Craig Clapperton, of Palmerston, was airlifted to Dunedin Hospital with five fractures on one side of his body following the crash north of Hampden last month.<\/p>\n<p>The crash, which involved his grain truck and a logging truck, resulted in the closure of State Highway 1 for several hours.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Clapperton\u2019s wife Kelly Clapperton said in a social media post her husband would require multiple surgeries.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/givealittle.co.nz\/cause\/craigs-long-recovery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">A Givealittle page <\/a>was set up to help support his &#8220;very long road to recovery&#8221;, and help pay for the family\u2019s travel to and from hospital, room stays and rehabilitation.<\/p>\n<p>In a recent update posted to the fundraising page, Mr Clapperton\u2019s sister-in-law said he would remain in Dunedin for several weeks following a leg operation which was a &#8220;huge blow&#8221; to those expecting him home.<\/p>\n<p>She said the family had been overwhelmed by the &#8220;love and support given to Craig and Kelly&#8221; and &#8220;hugely appreciated&#8221; the donations.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.odt.co.nz\/regions\/north-otago\/mailto:charley-kai.john@oamarumail.co.nz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">charley-kai.john@oamarumail.co.nz<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fundraiser set up to support the long-term recovery of a truck driver seriously injured in a crash&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-419992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}