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.