Miami Fire Department was called out to the scene of an accident, Wednesday morning around 11am.
Deputy Fire Chief Travis Reichert described what happened.
“We responded to a call of a tandem gravel truck rollover just West of Miami. When we arrived, the gravel truck was upside down on the roof of the cab and the driver had already self-extricated himself. Luckily, he was wearing his seat belt where things could have gone a lot worse. So luckily, we were able to secure the scene and do some traffic control and get the young man checked out by paramedics and send him on his way.”
Reichert confirmed the seatbelt made a big difference.
“Oh, it definitely would have been way worse. It was a rapid rollover; once he blew a front steer tire, he crossed into the oncoming traffic lane. Luckily, nobody was coming, he went down through the ditch and rolled it on the far side of the ditch.”
Harvest is a busy time of year with many big grain and gravel trucks on the road and Reichert had a message for all drivers.
“I would just say that make sure you're wearing your seat belt because you just never know what's going to happen, like this young man had a front steer tire blow, which is very unexpected. Had he not been wearing his seatbelt; it would have turned out a whole lot worse. He walked away with minor bruising and scratches.”
