FRENCH CREEK – The rear wheel of an asphalt dump truck that rolled over on the Alexander Road Monday had gotten snagged on the edge of the road, and the truck tipped over as a result.
According to the accident report filed by Cpl. Theron Caynor with the Upshur County Sheriff’s Department, the driver, 19-year-old Jacob Miller, of Moorefield, was headed east on the Alexander Road just past the West Virginia Wildlife Center a few minutes before 12:30 p.m. when his rear tire dropped off the edge of the roadway.
The wheel “rode the ditch” initially, but eventually pulled the asphalt truck onto its right side, the report says.
The truck was a 2006 white International dump truck owned by Southern West Virginia Asphalt and Paving, based in Dunbar, W.Va., the report states.
Caynor said Tuesday morning the company had been paving a short distance up the Alexander Road when the asphalt truck tipped over, spilling nearly all of its contents in the ditch.
Precision Auto Parts and Towing, which had to tow the truck due to disabling damage, also cleaned up the mess in addition to hauling the truck out of the ditch.
“The majority of the load was spilled, and they had to clean pretty much the rest of it out to get the vehicle up on its wheels,” Caynor said. “They got it righted and towed it off.”
Miller wasn’t injured or cited as a consequence of the accident.
According to the report, he said he’d been well within the speed limit.
“The tire slipped off of the edge (of the road), and it sucked me down in there,” Miller told law enforcement officers. “I was only going 20-25 mph.”
Lt. Mark Davis with the UCSD assisted Caynor, and Banks District Volunteer Fire Department and the W.Va. Department of Natural Resources also responded to the scene.
