News from all over - Spanish Fork Canyon, Utah
A tractor-trailer carrying 35,500 pounds of explosives overturned and exploded Wednesday, injuring several people and leaving a huge crater on U.S. 6.
The truck was "pretty much vaporized" in the explosion, Royce said. The explosion left a crater in the two-lane highway estimated to be between 60 feet and 80 feet wide and between 20 feet and 35 feet deep, Utah Department of Transportation spokesman Tom Hudachko said.
"The entire road is gone, shoulder to shoulder, there's no asphalt left," he said. The explosion also destroyed part of the adjacent railroad tracks and some fiber optic telephone lines buried along the road, Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Doug McCleve said.
Witnesses said the truck's driver appeared to lose control of the vehicle after taking a curve in the highway at a high rate of speed, McCleve said. Witnesses to the accident rushed to help the driver and his passenger, freeing the pair from their safety belts, McCleve said. Without the help, "they would not have survived."
The truck was "pretty much vaporized" in the explosion, Royce said. The explosion left a crater in the two-lane highway estimated to be between 60 feet and 80 feet wide and between 20 feet and 35 feet deep, Utah Department of Transportation spokesman Tom Hudachko said.
"The entire road is gone, shoulder to shoulder, there's no asphalt left," he said. The explosion also destroyed part of the adjacent railroad tracks and some fiber optic telephone lines buried along the road, Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Doug McCleve said.
Witnesses said the truck's driver appeared to lose control of the vehicle after taking a curve in the highway at a high rate of speed, McCleve said. Witnesses to the accident rushed to help the driver and his passenger, freeing the pair from their safety belts, McCleve said. Without the help, "they would not have survived."
