On Monday, August 1, 2022, a cement mixer overturned, blocking westbound traffic on Interstate 70 near the 32nd Avenue/Youngfield exit in Wheat Ridge. The concrete mixer truck accident occurred at 2 p.m. on Monday afternoon; the Colorado Department of Transportation reopened traffic lanes shortly after 7 PM that evening. As of 8:37 p.m. Monday evening, traffic flow resumed. Hazmat cleanup took five hours.

Why did the cement truck crash on I-70? 

According to Wheat Ridge police, the cement truck crashed and rolled over after a tire blowout, dumping cement and fuel on the highway. Tire blowouts are a type of maintenance issue that accounted for more than 2000 out-of-service violations in 2020 alone. The vast majority of tire failures — 90% — can be attributed to underinflation. Tire blowouts can cause the truck driver to lose control, swerve into traffic, or even cause rollover crashes, as happened here. Tire blowouts put other drivers at risk. 

Thankfully, no other passenger vehicles were affected by the cement truck’s tire blowout and resulting cement truck rollover. The cement truck driver was also unhurt.

Monday afternoon, Wheat Ridge police tweeted this video of cleanup and removal efforts:

How much does a cement truck weigh?

According to Texas Aggregates & Concrete Association: “If a truck is carrying 10 cubic yards, then the weight of the concrete is approximately 40,000 lb. The truck will weigh approximately 26,000 lb. for a total of 66,000 lb.” 

By contrast, the average weight of a passenger vehicle is just over 4,000 pounds, as reported by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2020. A cement truck will weigh between six and sixteen times more than the average passenger car! Trucking and construction companies must be aware of this weight differential, and train their drivers to drive with care, especially on highways and around construction sites.

What is a rollover accident?

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) defines a truck rollover accident as an “overturn” and/or as an event involving a truck making “one or more vehicle quarter turns about [the vehicle’s] longitudinal axis.” This can include crashes in which trucks roll multiple times and/or crashes in which a truck overturns onto either side. The most common reason for a rollover accident is high speed, but they can also occur from reckless or distracted driving, misjudging the sharpness of a turn, driver fatigue, improper product loading, vehicle malfunction, maintenance issues, or impact from another vehicle.

According to the FMCSA’s Large Truck Crash Causation Study:

  • 4-5% of all fatal trucking crashes are trucking rollovers
  • About 70% of truck rollovers involve large Class 8 tractor-trailers or tractors without a trailer attached (known as bobtails)
  • 30% involve single unit trucks
  • 56% of all rollover crashes occur on divided highways
  • 42% of all rollover crashes occur on two-way non-divided roads
  • 2% of all rollover crashes occur on on-way streets
  • 47% of large-truck crashes resulting in truck occupant deaths occur in rollovers incidents.

Have you been injured in a truck collision? 

Call the truck accident attorneys at the Law Offices of Peter M. Anderson. As truck accident lawyers, we specialize in crashes involving a wide variety of trucks, including concrete trucks, cement mixer trucks and other types of large commercial vehicles. We understand the Federal and state laws for commercial truck carriers, FMCSA and the regulations often broken contributing to the crash. Call us today for your free consultation, and to learn how we can help you reclaim your financial and physical recovery after a truck accident.