Hundreds Of Trucks Forced Off I-70 Due To Extreme Winds
LIMON, Colo. (CBS4) - Hurricane-like winds gave truckers problems all day Tuesday as hundreds of them got off the road to wait out the weather.
The wind even caused some rollovers and Interstate 70 eastbound near Limon was closed Tuesday night because of a truck that fell on its side.
In a 2-mile span of I-70 nearly a dozen tractor-trailers were blown off the road. Penny Lewis saw one of them topple right in front of her.
"The rear end of the trailer came up and once the wind gets under the trailer the tractor is going to fall after that," Lewis said.
Lewis drove nearly 50 miles under caution before she could find a safe spot to pull over. She said it was like a rollercoaster ride.
"The trailer seemed like it was going straight and your tractor is like this (she leans). That's what it seemed like … it pushed both the tractor and the trailer," Lewis said.
"It's been blowing pretty hard. This wind is blowing hard," trucker Charles Kinsey said.
Kinsey was headed to Georgia. He made his student pull over at the first exit. After passing two rollovers he said the only difference between trucks on their wheels and trucks on their side was luck.
"I'm pretty sure the wind (just) took them over, especially if they're empty. If they're empty they are just a paper bag then -- it blows over," Kinsey said.
Some truckers were moving on I-70 with their back doors open as a way to vent from the extreme winds, but the safest thing for them to do was to get off the road.
