Here is the news account of this wreck fron the Colfax,CA record.
Second victim pulled from Colfax big rig wreckage
By Jenna Nielsen, Journal Staff Writer
The body of a co-driver was extricated this morning by Cal Fire crews at the scene of Monday's big rig rollover crash near Colfax.
The body of a second man was found underneath debris Tuesday morning at the accident site of a big rig rollover near Colfax Monday, officials reported.
The man, whose name is not being released pending notification of his family, was reportedly a passenger in the big rig, which rolled into a guard rail spilling its load of recylced plastic down the embankment near the Magra Road exit on westbound Interstate 80, California Highway Patrol offi-cials reported.
The driver, who was trapped inside of the truck’s cab and was also killed in the accident, was re-portedly going 70 mph and passing another truck in the fast lane when he lost control and slid down an embankment, said CHP Officer Rich Ruiz.
“This morning, as the investigator was going over log books, (it was) determined there was possi-bly a co-driver involved,” Ruiz said.
Ruiz said investigators also have video footage of the accident, recorded by a device on a Wal-Mart truck, which the driver of the big rig was passing at the time of the accident.
“The driver of the WalMart truck was doing 55 mph, so we estimate the driver (of the big rig) was going 70 mph when he approached a curve and lost control. You see in the video the trailer starts to fishtail. When the driver tries to correct, he is sent over the guardrail.”
Battalion Chief Jeff Brand of Cal Fire said crews located the co-driver under the debris and extri-cated him this morning.
Brand said when the truck was overturned, the cab was torn off and wedged beneath the contents of the trailer and the trailer itself.
All westbound lanes were closed as a result of the accident, which occurred at approximately 2:30 p.m. All lanes were opened by approximately 7:45 p.m., California Highway Patrol officials said.
Ruiz said the driver of big rig had only had his license for nine days.
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1 day ago
10 comments:
Terrible accident which maybe could have been avoided.
Maybe could have been avoided????? Are you serious? They guy was obviously stupid or inexperienced or combination of both! Curve was clearly marked with flashing sign as well as having a video sign telling him he was going too fast. I feel for the passenger and his/her family.
...umm, the driver had his CDL for 9 days...whaddya expect???
The accident most definitely could have been avoided!! Even if the driver only had his license for 9 days, common sense tells you that you should go slow down a hill in a big truck. Maybe the driver was a student and did not know better. You don't know for sure.
As Director of The Safety Team I can most certainly say that this does not surprise me at all. It seems that as days go by the number of cowboys we get as truck drivers is growing. We as professional drivers need to weed out these cowboys ourselves by notifying their companies and when all else fails 911 still works. Please visit our web site at
www.thesafetyteam.org to find out what you can do to be part of the solution and not the problem.
Well CrazyEnglishman, It looks like they are weeding themselves out. I'm just glad they didn't take someone else with them.
"I'm just glad they didn't take someone else with them."
Well, the driver did, anyway.
Sorry to say but that is not a rare occurence with these new driving school grads, you just can't teach common sense.
Could have been he didn't downshift in time for a downgrade and was smoking his brakes.
I've had this happen myself on Hwy 20 coming down from Clear Lake California, Missed my downshift grinding a pound of gears for everyone and creating a cloud of smoke all the way down the grade praying.
That, was a 15,000 lb. load of 1,000 lb lead weights for calibrating scales. Big rigs are good to 80,000 lbs on our highways. Something to keep in mind when you cut one off.
I knew the passenger in this accident, and, yes, he left behind 3 children and a wife. No one will ever know the "real story" of what happened here since the only 2 people that can tell us are now gone.
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