Paint Truck Colors Bandelier

Crash near Los Alamos leaves roadside yellow, white

LOS ALAMOS — A swath of forest was splashed in white and yellow road paint after a truck plunged off a highway near Los Alamos and spilled its load Tuesday morning.

Both paint and diesel fuel leaked onto land on Bandelier National Monument, which is assessing the toxicity of the spill, according to a news release from Bandelier, which said the truck was carrying nearly 2,200 gallons of highway striping paint.

The truck left N.M. 4 northwest of the junction with N.M. 501 and plunged about 200 feet down the mountain. Rescue crews pulled the injured driver back to the highway and he was flown to a hospital.

The Los Alamos Monitor identified him as 51-year-old Francisco Maes of Willard. A co-worker told the paper he had bumps and bruises and was expected to recover.

Los Alamos police spokesman Capt. Randy Foster says the cause of the accident is under investigation.

Workers at Bandelier have been removing clumps of the congealed paint, which is visible from roads and hiking trails in the area, while the Los Alamos National Laboratory Hazardous Materials Team has limited the spread of the diesel fuel.

The spill is about nine miles from the park’s Visitors Center and main archaeological trails, so it won’t affect most visitors. However, there may be some closures along N.M. 4 during cleanup operations.

COURTESY OF BANDELIER NATIONAL MONUMENT Rather than painting the town red, this tractor-trailer ended up painting the forest yellow after it crashed Tuesday northwest of the junction of State Roads 4 and 501, tumbling down a steep slope into Bandelier National Monument, which is assessing...