A Big Horn Redi Mix driver had a wild ride last Tuesday when his cement mixer tumbled into the Willwood canal. Fortunately, the driver made it out safely, said plant manager Nate Horning.

“Our biggest concern was for our driver,” he said. “He made it out without a scratch.”

The driver, who was not identified, was delivering cement to be used to build the footings for a private bridge over the canal near the intersection of Road 13 and Lane 14. The truck was using a private dirt road to get to the location of the new bridge.

The road was immediately adjacent to the canal, thinning as it neared the spot of the bridge. The weight of the truck was too much for the road, Horning said. “The canal road gave way and over she went,” he said.

Concrete trucks weigh an average of 25,000 pounds by themselves and up to 40,000 pounds when carrying a full load. Their capacity is typically around 8 cubic yards, but can be up to 10 cubic yards if fully-loaded. 

As the truck started to roll out of control, the driver was able to leap to safety before it came to rest on the south side of the canal. A Willwood Irrigation crew was forced to construct a clearing so a large diesel wrecker from Johnsons’ Oil and Water Service could get to the spot and pull it from the canal, which was running at full capacity at the time.

“We talked about turning off the canal, but that was the last thing I wanted to do,” said Travis Moger, district manager of the irrigation district. “If the truck would have been completely submerged, we would have had to shut down.”

The crew filled in a drain a few feet from the truck, allowing them to build the staging area and will repair the drain at a later date. Moger said 99% of the cement was still in the truck when it was pulled back onto land. The recovery of the mixer took four or five hours to complete.