DEERFIELD — A loaded cement truck slid off Broughams Pond Road just before Old Ferry Road in Old Deerfield Tuesday morning, tumbling down a 20-foot embankment.
The driver of a Westfield Ready Mix truck, hauling concrete, was headed to a project at Deerfield Academy when the accident occurred. He crawled from the cab unscathed.
It took three tractor-trailer recovery cranes until mid-afternoon to pull it up from the mud, according to Deerfield Fire Capt. Chip Williams.
Around 2:30 p.m., crews from Erving-based Rose Ledge Companies and Red’s Towing, Recovery and Transport of West Springfield secured winches and put away wooden vehicle chocks.
The cement truck’s detached concrete chutes rested against a large maple tree.
“He went completely over,” Williams said, pointing to disfigured running boards on the passenger’s side and the hopper’s main channel, clogged with soil.
Highway Department Superintendent Kevin Scarborough said the driver mistakenly went straight instead of turning left down Old Main Street toward Deerfield Academy. After turning around and on his way back, the driver “just grabbed a soft embankment. That’s all it took.”
The truck made one complete roll, coming to rest on the passenger side. To remove it from the ditch, two cranes from Red’s Towing and another from Rose Ledge simultaneously lifted, Scarborough said.
“It was really interesting. They picked it all the way up into the air and slowly put it back down again,” he described.
The Highway Department was called because there’s a power line beneath that particular section of road, which electric company workers shut down. A statement by Deerfield Police Department noted the driver was going speed limit.
Along with local police, the Highway Department, and Deerfield Fire Department, South County EMS and the State Police Commercial Vehicle Section was called to help.