Gravel truck overturns on East Mercer Way

Published 4:06 pm Monday, May 20, 2013

It was 9:30 a.m. on May 14, a mild spring morning. Both Dick Moller and his neighbor, Jack Cusack, were home. Suddenly, there was the sound of brakes and a loud boom.

“It was so loud,” said Cusack, with emphasis. “I looked out, then went to find my camera.”

Moller also heard the boom and went up to see a dump truck with an attached trailer turned on its side. He saw a huge gash made by the vehicle in the slope at the side of the road.

He was shaken by the incident, saying it was lucky that the whole rig didn’t end up down an embankment.

The truck and its driver, from a Maple Valley company named “Silver Streak,” were subcontractors hired by the primary contractor that the city has employed to repair and enhance shoulders on East Mercer Way.

According to a draft police report of the incident, the truck driver had swerved to avoid an oncoming yellow Volkswagen Bug in the same lane as the truck. The police report indicates that a witness driving a car behind the truck said the truck driver had been exceeding the speed limit.

There was also one other vehicle nearby.

City Maintenance Director Glen Boettcher says that the city is well aware of the issues that come with the new, larger trucks that are allowed —even on city streets.

“We are always repairing curbs, and signs and street lights that are damaged by these larger trucks,” he said.