GENESEE, Colo.—All lanes of Interstate 70 were back open near Genesee early Thursday after a semi-truck crash that killed one person.
The accident occurred about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday near the Lookout Mountain exit on eastbound I-70, when a truck driver hauling a drilling mud material lost control of the semi just short of a runaway truck ramp.
“He was out of control,” said Trooper Ryan Sullivan of the Colorado State Patrol. “He was unable to stop and ended up rolling the truck and the trailer.”
Sullivan said it was too early to determine why the truck could not stop.
The driver was killed. His name was not immediately released, nor was the name of the company he was working for.
The debris field from the crash stretched for an estimated one acre.
Another truck driver, Chris Cowan, told Denver’s KUSA-TV he thought the truck went by him shortly before the crash.
“I knew he was in trouble when he flew by me like that,” Cowan told the station.
“I saw a big fireball come up in the air.”
Westbound lanes of I-70 reopened about two hours after the crash, but eastbound lanes remained closed all night and reopened early Thursday.
