Semi Crashes Off Overpass, Driver Injured

ADAMS COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) - A semi apparently crashed over a guardrail and bridge abutment on E-470 Thursday morning and flew across a canal, coming to rest on the overpass embankment. As Copter4 monitored the scene, the truck's driver was extricated, pulled up the embankment by emergency crews, and eventually loaded into a waiting medical helicopter.

Colorado State Patrol Trooper Gary Cutler confirms a call came in to his dispatchers at 7:28 a.m. for a semi that was involved in a crash with multiple other vehicles. Copter 4 saw three other damaged vehicles at the scene, one of them another semi.

Cutler said the semi driver's condition was not known.

The crash occurred where E-470 crosses over a large irrigation canal between Buckley Road and Interstate 76. Both directions of E-470 were shut down while the driver was being extricated. However, northbound lanes have since been re-opened.

Cutler confirmed firefighters at the scene were working to contain diesel fuel spilled from the crashed truck's saddle tanks. From Copter 4, that fuel could be seen reaching the edge of the canal's water.

The canal is apparently owned by Farmers Reservoir and Irrigation Company, according to a spokesman with the Denver Water Department. A message to that company's spokesperson has not yet been returned.

• E-470
• Colorado State Patrol