Wednesday, May 20, 2015

80,000 POUNDS OF SOUR CREAM WASTED WHEN TRUCK FLIPS TO ITS SIDE NEAR OAKRIDGE, OREGON. ANOTHER LOUSY TRUCK DRIVER WHO FAILED TO NEGOTIATE A CURVE.




MAY 19, 2015

OAKRIDGE, OREGON

An overturned dairy truck on Highway 58 near Oakridge was successfully removed from the side of the road today, more than 24 hours after it crashed, the state Department of Transportation said.

The tractor-trailer rig — carrying 80,000 pounds of mostly sour cream — overturned Monday just before 9:30 a.m.

The driver was not injured. No citations were reported. 

The highway was closed two miles west of Oakridge during the recovery effort, which began Monday and was continued today. It reopened permanently at 2:30 p.m. today.

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A detour will be re-­established on Highway 58 today about two miles west of Oakridge, where the removal of an overturned tractor-trailer rig filled with sour cream and other dairy products will continue.

Heading west, the truck crashed at 9:23 a.m. Monday, state Department of Transportation spokesman Rick Little said. The truck was not blocking the highway, but the fuel tanks needed to be pumped and the 80,000 pounds of cargo needed to be offloaded before the rig could be righted and removed, Little said.

Officials expected to remove all the cargo Monday night. But they decided to wait on removing the truck until today, rather than keep a local detour in place through the night.

Sometime today, the detour using Westfir Road will be re-established and the highway will be closed for three to five hours while the truck is righted and removed. State officials on Monday night did not have an estimated start time for removing the truck today.

Officials originally thought the primary product in the trailer was cheese, but later determined that it was mostly sour cream. Efforts are being made to salvage as much of the cargo as possible to distribute to local nonprofit agencies, the Transportation Department said.

The truck’s driver appears to have failed to negotiate a curve but was not injured, Oregon State Police spokesman Bill Fugate said.