Pickup truck, trailer slide off steep curve in HSNP
Traffic was delayed off and on for around an hour on Friday after a truck hauling a trailer lost control on Blacksnake Road in Hot Springs National Park, and slid off the side of the road down a steep embankment. There were no injuries with the crash.
Park Ranger Justin Bradbury said that the call for the crash occurred around 1 p.m. Bradbury said that the incident occurred because the road was slippery, and because “I’m guessing (the load was) a little too heavy.”
The vehicle had two occupants inside it. Bradbury said that neither was injured.
By 2 p.m., Piney Fire Department had gotten out a hydraulic rescue tool to separate the trailer from the pickup truck. Fire Chief Scott Miser agreed with Bradbury that the vehicle and trailer were too heavy for the sharp turn that the driver had attempted to make.
“(It had a) little more weight, (and it) slipped off into the trees,” Miser said.
Miser also said that neither the vehicle or the trailer — which was hauling what one person on the scene called a walk-in cooler — were damaged in the incident. Both were pulled from the side of the mountain, and when a jack couldn’t be found, the hydraulic rescue tool was used to lift the trailer onto a different vehicle to haul it out. Miser said that the pickup was in good enough shape after the crash that it could be driven home.
The pickup truck was removed from the mountainside by 2:30.
Nine members of Pine Fire Department assisted on the scene.
Bradbury advised to drive safely in the park, “especially on these sharp curves.”