Tractor-trailer overturns on Montana 35

The Daily Inter Lake

A tractor-trailer hauling powdered cement overturned Monday morning on Montana 35 near Finley Point.

None of the powdered cement, which is not hazardous, spilled from the truck's trailer or pup trailer, said Stephen Stanley, Lake County director of Emergency Services.

A small amount of motor oil that leaked from the truck's engine has already been cleaned up.

Officials expected it would take several hours to right and then clear the wreck, which closed one lane of Montana 35 at the crash site.

According to the Montana Highway Patrol, the truck's driver told investigators he was at mile marker 4 or 5 about 10 a.m. when he swerved to avoid hitting a deer in the road and rolled his vehicle into the ditch on the highway's east side, away from Flathead Lake.

The driver, who suffered minor injuries, was treated and released. No citations have been issued yet, Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Aaron Day said.

Monday's rollover occurred less than a mile from the scene of an April 2008 crash in which a tanker truck, also hauling a pup trailer, overturned and spilled almost 6,000 gallons of fuel into the ground.

That crash - which forced five nearby families to abandon their homes and prompted a multimillion-dollar cleanup effort that is still under way - spurred area residents and the Montana Department of Transportation to revisit measures to improve traffic safety.

Studies conducted by the department have found that tractor-trailers can safely navigate that stretch of road.