Trailer containing liquid spills over, blocks two lanes on I-40 E

WBIR.com Updated: 9/16/2010 4:54:12 PM Posted: 9/16/2010 4:52:48 PM

A trailer carrying "Master Jack" drain opener spilled over and blocked two lanes of I-40 E at Seventeenth Street Thursday afternoon.

According to the Knoxville Fire Department, Don Melton from Denver, CO was hauling a 4' by 6' enclosed trailed filled with the liquid. His trailer came loose from the van and fell over blocking two lanes of I-40 E.

Melton told officials he was on the way to North Carolina to sell the liquid at a flee market.

Officers with the Fire Department worked to neutralize and dilute the product.

CSP cites driver for trailer wreck

8/12/2010 6:00:00 AM

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CSP cites driver for trailer wreck Reid Wright Journal Staff Writer A local man was cited for a loose-trailer accident that smashed a sport utility vehicle and hospitalized an Oregon woman Aug. 5 on U.S. 491 near Cortez. Following a Colorado State Patrol investigation, Kurt Trudeau was issued a citation for careless driving causing injury regarding the incident. It is apparent the fertilizer spreader being towed by Trudeau began to fishtail, a pin came loose and the farm implement separated from the Dodge pickup and drifted into the oncoming lane, colliding with a Toyota 4Runner driven by Feryl Laney, Trooper Joshua Boden said. According to witnesses, Laney's vehicle then spun counter-clockwise, lost control and flipped end over end - ejecting the woman. The vehicle smashed into a security gate and came to a rest on Laney's leg. Laney is in stable condition after being airlifted to St. Mary's hospital in Grand Junction, Boden said. Dangeroustrailers.org President Ron Melancon said accidents such as this are not uncommon. Four hundred nineteen people have been killed in trailer-related incidents in Colorado since 1975, he said. Although the state requires safety chains, there are no other regulations for trailers under 3,000 pounds, he said, "Why do we have to wait for another person to get hurt or lose their life to do the right thing?" he said. Further, Melancon said incidents in which trailers come loose but do not cause injury or property damage go unreported. In this case, the fertilizer spreader is legally classified as a farm implement in the state of Colorado ­- rendering the device even more immune to regulation, Melancon said. In the state of Virginia, such devices are not allowed to travel on the road, he said. "A farm implement is supposed to be used on a farm," he said. "We all preach personal responsibility. Would you secure a child in a child safety seat the way you secured that farm implement?" Reach Reid Wright at reidw@cortezjournal.com.

PRILL: The Agony Of Defeat

PRILL: The Agony Of Defeat

For every success story at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs, there is one of despair. I found one such story on Wednesday.

PRILL: The Agony Of Defeat

For every success story at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs, there is one of despair. I found one such story on Wednesday.

Eric Prill | Posted September 22, 2010


At the SCCA National Championship Runoffs Presented by Subway, there are great stories of success and personal triumph. These are the stories you’ll read about on websites and in magazines. But for every success story, there is one of despair. I found one such story on Wednesday.

Some of the craziest, most frustrating stories come out of the trip to races. I’m not saying that grassroots racers are a menace to the highway, but I’ve heard my share of stories revolving around blown trailer tires, runaway trailers and stolen rigs out of hotel parking lots. Sometimes, the greatest adventure on a race weekend is getting to and from the event.

Harold Flescher had a difficult trip to the Runoffs. The 1995 F Production National Champion had motor home trouble, making his three-day trip from South Florida take a week. Weeks like that often set the stage for a Cinderella-type storybook ending, but it’s not happening for “H” this week.

On the last lap of qualifying, Harold had a good lap going in his aged, but highly-developed and really fast Austin-Healey Sprite. He admitted the car was a little loose in the Carousel, but, knowing he had a flier going, he decided to go flat through the Kink.

It didn’t work. Harold went wide, and figured he’d just hang on in the dirt at 120mph and ease it back on, but when he got back to the asphalt, the car hooked right and went straight into the wall. Ouch.

I was on track in the same session and you never like to see the yellow flags waving vigorously at Station 11 and 11A. It means there’s probably a yard sale around the bend and you hope one of your fellow racers isn’t hurt.

As I drove by the safety vehicle and Harold’s car, I was relieved to see him climbing out. Talking to him afterward by his crumpled car, Harold admitted he was sore and that he’d probably be really sore tomorrow. It was the hardest hit he’d ever had in his 40-plus years of racing.

I asked him what the future of the car was, and he said that his crew chief Peter would get the car into his shop to fix it. I was happy to hear that, because I know that Harold has thought about retirement, at least a little bit, in the last several years. He admitted that weeks like this make a guy consider if he wants to continue racing. I hope he does, but in two weeks time, he’ll celebrate his 70th birthday. Who could blame him if he decided that it was time to call it a career? But, then again, this isn’t a job or a career. This is for fun and Harold loves to race. He’s damn good at it too.

Thrill of Victory

Someone did taste the thrill of victory today—Benjamin Schaut, of Commerce Twp, Mich., won the second-annual Beat the Boss charity fundraiser for the SCCA Foundation. Each year, SCCA President Jeff Dahnert challenges all to a foot race around the four-mile Road America circuit. Proceeds go to the SCCA Foundation, which funds a number of outreach programs, most notably the Tire Rack Street Survival teen safe-driving program. Dahnert finished seventh—two spots better than 2009.

I guess I should be happy, but…

So my own session today didn’t go how I would have scripted it. All in all, it wasn’t bad, though. After day two, I’m in fourth place – a little more than a tenth out of second. A lot of people would be thrilled, but I was frustrated with how my session shook out and actually helped one of the guys in front of me by giving him a rabbit to chase and a draft. There’s always tomorrow, but the weather doesn’t look good.

Loose trailer flips 4Runner

Journal/Hope Nealson
A Toyota 4Runner with Oregon plates was involved in a rollover north of Cortez off U.S. Highway 491 Tuesday around 4 p.m. The unidentifed passenger, whose condition was unknown at the time of the accident, was taken to Southwest Memorial Hospital.

Journal/Hope Nealson
An unidentifed woman is carried from the scene of a rollover her Toyota 4Runner, with Oregon plates, was involved in north of the Cortez Livestock Auction off U.S. Highway 491 about 4 p.m. Tuesday. Witnesses said a trailer came loose and crashed into her vehicle, causing it to flip, end over end, into the ditch next to the opposite lane of traffic.

8/3/2010 5:50:00 PM

Hope Nealson
Journal Staff Writer

A woman was ejected from her Toyota 4Runner north of Cortez on Tuesday when a farm implement pulled by an oncoming Dodge Ram 3500 pickup truck came loose and collided with the vehicle, causing it to roll and eject the woman before landing on top of her.

"The farm implement collided with the left-front corner of the engine compartment area and basically from there it opened up the Toyota 4Runner. It took the driver's door, the roof and the rear hatch door completely off the vehicle as it was traveling around the left side of the vehicle," Colorado State Patrol Trooper Joshua Boden said.

It took four minutes for an ambulance to arrive at the scene near mile marker 30 about 3:55 p.m., Boden said.

The ambulance transported the driver, Feryl Laney, to Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez, where she was prepped and transported via CareFlight to St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction.

"She suffered serious bodily injury from the crash as far as I know," Boden said Wednesday. "I called about 1 a.m. before I went off duty, and she was stabilizing in the ICU in Grand Junction."

Laney was listed in serious condition at St. Mary's Hospital on Wednesday afternoon.

Laney, who is based in Oregon but travels the country working for youth groups, was driving in the southbound lane of U.S. Highway 491 when her vehicle was stuck by a farm implement "made of pretty heavy gauge steel" that had disconnected from behind a pickup driven by a Basin Co-op employee, Boden said.

The implement strayed from the northbound lane into Laney's southbound lane, causing her 4Runner to spin counterclockwise from the impact, across the northbound lane, rolling 56 feet before landing on her leg.

"Ms. Feryl was ejected completely from the vehicle as it rolled and collided with the fence at a storage area," Boden said. "The vehicle continued traveling through the fence where it struck the security gate and landed on top of Ms. Feryl."

Montezuma County Sheriff Gerald Wallace said there was quite a bit of damage when he arrived on the scene about 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Firefighters from the Cortez and Lewis-Arriola departments responded, along with the Colorado State Patrol and the Montezuma County Sheriff's Office.

"It was one of the fertilizer trailers you hook behind your tractor being towed," he said. "It did hit the lady's vehicle, and she was trapped underneath the vehicle for a little while until she was released by firefighters."

Boden said the fertilizer implement is not technically considered a trailer, even though it looks like a trailer and has the design of a trailer. Because it's an agricultural machine - a fertilizer spreader - it's not classified as a vehicle and therefore different laws apply.

"Being a farm implement, it throws a kink in things," he said. "How we define vehicles and define objects affects if there is a federal regulation or state law that was violated."

The name of the driver of the Dodge Ram 3500 pickup truck pulling the implement in the northbound lane of Highway 491 when the connection came loose will not be released until charges are filed, Boden said. No drugs or alcohol were involved, Boden added.

The vehicle had extensive damage, Wallace said.

"It was quite a mess out there," he said. "I've not seen a Toyota 4Runner that was destroyed that bad in a long time. The roof and the tailgate were on the west side of the road, and the vehicle ended up on the east side."

In the impact, the implement lost the front axle and a tire that rolled through the same pathway as Laney, striking a parked, unattended camper trailer. A northbound Ford F-250 pickup truck traveling behind the farm implement was also damaged from debris that came off the vehicle, Boden said.

Ronda Griffith, of Cortez, was following her friend home after work traveling north on Highway 491, passing the Cortez Livestock Auction, when she saw the oncoming vehicle fly across the road in front of her friend's car.

"There was stuff flying everywhere," she said. "A few more seconds and she would have crashed right into you," she said to her friend, Glenda Alexander, also of Cortez.

Alexander said she saw the trailer come loose and the car flip in front of her.

"The car was flying across the road, end over end," Alexander said. "It threw her out and landed on her leg."

Alexander said she immediately pulled over, called 911 and rushed to the vehicle, where an emergency medical technician from Utah who had been driving behind Laney tended to her, asking her questions.

"At first she was just moaning. Then she started answering the questions," Alexander said. "The EMT asked her if she had on her seat belt, and she said she did."

Considering how severely the vehicle was torn apart, whether or not Laney was wearing her seat belt is a moot point, Boden said.

"It ripped up the B-post that holds her seat belt," he said.

Reach Hope Nealson at hopen@cortezjournal.com.

Horse trailer floor collapses, highway blocked for hours Read more: Mount Airy News - Horse trailer floor collapses highway blocked for hours

Horse trailer floor collapses, highway blocked for hours

by Mondee Tilley

8 days ago | 1318 views | 1 | 5 | |

LOWGAP — One horse had to be put down after bottom fell out of the trailer it and four other horses were riding in.

The incident happened at N.C. 18 and N.C. 89 at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, according to Skull Camp Volunteer Fire Department Chief Josh Moose.

“Once we got there, we found a truck and a horse trailer that was coming off of N.C. 18 turning onto N.C. 89 when the bottom of the horse trailer broke through and one or two of the horses’ legs fell through. They didn’t know right away that it had happened. So they don’t know how far they had driven like that,” said Moose.

He said there were five horses, two donkeys and one sheep in the trailer. He said one horse was trapped by the legs between the road and the bottom on the trailer and was unable to get up. The horse had to be euthanized at the scene.

He said Surry County Animal Control was called to the scene to remove the animals from the roadway.

Moose said both highways were shut down for 30 minutes and N.C. 18 was closed for more than two hours.

He said the three men in the truck had left a stock yard sale in Virginia and were headed toward Mount Airy at the time of the incident.

Moose said in his opinion the medium-sized horse trailer was overloaded, which caused that accident.

Trooper Kevin Johnson with the N.C. State Highway Patrol charged Jose Rodriguez Flores, of 366 Forest Oaks Drive, Dobson with no registration, no insurance and fictitious tags. Johnson called Trooper Bobby Miller with the Motor Carrier Division who charged Flores with $150 in civil fees for no lights on the trailer and having unsecured load. The Motor Carrier Division is in charge of inspecting trailers.

Read more: Mount Airy News - Horse trailer floor collapses highway blocked for hours

Dump truck accident closes road for 2 hours...Loose Trailer

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Dump truck accident closes road for 2 hours

A trailer carrying a water truck overturned on Duggans Road, off Lime Kiln Road in southern Nevada County, closing the road for two hours Friday afternoon and disrupting school pickup for local students.

Sunny Stephens, 41, of Auburn, was driving the Kenworth dump truck and hauling a flatbed trailer on Lime Kiln Road at about 2 p.m. and was traveling too fast when he tried to turn right on Duggans Road, according to the California Highway Patrol report.

Due to the speed, the flatbed trailer, which was carrying a water truck, fell over and the trailer became detached.

Duggans Road was closed from 3:11 p.m. to 5:16 p.m. so that two heavy-duty tow trucks could remove the vehicles. Durham Transportation was notified and adjusted pickup locations for students from Cottage Hill, Magnolia and Bear River High schools.

CINDY PETERSON: Wilson's rough road to Bismarck

By CINDY PETERSON Bismarck Tribune | Posted: Saturday, August 21, 2010 8:51 pm | (0) Comment

Kylee Wilson ran into a string of bad luck the night before she was set to move to Bismarck.

Wilson was traveling from Iowa to her hometown of Omaha, Neb., the evening of Aug. 1.

The next morning Wilson, her mom and a close friend planned to set off for the Capital City so Wilson could start her duties at Bismarck State, where she is the new women's basketball coach and will be starting the school's softball program.

Wilson, her mom and friend went into Iowa to borrow a trailer from her friend's grandfather to help bring her furniture to Bismarck.

Little did Wilson know that her arrival in Bismarck would be delayed by more than two weeks. The trio ended up in an emergency room in Omaha that night.

At about 6 p.m., Wilson was driving her Trailblazer when the women heard a loud noise and felt a strong pull on the vehicle. The trailer started fishtailing.

"I had a semi to the right and a ditch to the left," Wilson said. "There was a bridge 10 to 20 feet in front of me. The trailer went off the edge into the ditch."

A gentleman who witnessed the accident said Wilson's Trailblazer rolled five or six times.

"The guy behind us ran down there right away," Wilson said. "He said sparks had been coming from the trailer. I hit a bump earlier, and we think the trailer came off the hitch and ball. I was pulling the trailer by the chains."

Wilson's mom was able to kick out her window and get out of the vehicle. Wilson couldn't get her door open and was removed by the jaws of life. The roof was cut off to rescue her friend.

"Luckily we were all wearing our seat belts," Wilson said.

Wilson's mom sustained bruises on her right side.

Her friend suffered from whiplash and had a piece of glass lodged in one of her toes.

Wilson took the brunt of everything. She suffered lacerations on her face and forehead. She was treated with six staples to the back of her head.

Doctors shaved part of

her head in the back and some of her hair in the front was shaved from hitting the driver's side window.

Wilson also got stitches in her left knee and still has glass particles in one of her elbows.

Wilson spent two days in the hospital getting CAT scans.

"They found bleeding in my brain," she said. "They couldn't tell if it was from the accident or if I already had it."

Wilson, who normally wears her hair long, came to Bismarck with a different hairdo.

"My mom feels bad because they shaved some of my hair off and I have scars," Wilson said. "It's just hair. It will grow back."

Wilson, who was advised not to travel, came to Bismarck last week for orientation.

She went back to Omaha for a follow-up visit and arrived in Bismarck on Tuesday.

When Wilson entered the emergency room, she wasn't worried about herself.

She was fretting over recruiting for basketball and softball. She was worried about getting her office and apartment set up. She asked her dad to phone BSC athletic director Buster Gilliss immediately.

"I wasn't worried about my injuries," Wilson said. "I knew I was bleeding, but I wasn't in a lot of pain. There were so many things I felt like I needed to do. Everything got put on hold. There's a lot of recruiting to do."

Even though Wilson has been in town for just a few days, she's gotten the opportunity to meet some of her basketball players.

Another thing on Wilson's to-do list is starting up her softball pitching camp.

She's also been welcomed by her colleagues at BSC.

"I haven't met one person who hasn't extended their hand to help out," she said. "Some players offered to help move me into my apartment.

"I can't wait for school to start. I want to get a feel for what the campus is like when the students are there. Right now there's only so much I can do until the athletes get there."

(Cindy Peterson is a Tribune sportswriter.)

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