BASS LAKE – A Madera County sewage truck rolled over on Road 274 about a mile east of Fawn Point this afternoon, dumping the entire load into the roadway and down towards the lake.
Christopher Mosher, 55, or Oakhurst, driver of the truck, apparently allowed the right front tire of his truck to travel over the concrete ridge on the side of the roadway, and tried to pull the truck back onto the pavement. When he did, he overcorrected and began swerving.A witness to the accident said the big truck swerved all the way back across the roadway, where the driver overcorrected again, causing the truck to flip over.
Ron Pennington, 65, of North Fork, was traveling westbound and was just approaching the big truck, going the opposite direction, when he saw it start to go off the road.
“He got off the curb, and when he corrected to try to get out of it, he started wobbling,” said Pennington. “Then he came back across the road and overcorrected and rolled at least once.”
Pennington said he watched the whole thing happen in his rearview mirror, then turned around and came back to help.
“I pulled out my pocket knife and cut him out of there,” he said. “He was pinned in with the seatebelt around his neck.”
Pennington said the hatch on the top of the truck then broke open “and everything was gushing out and splashing and running down towards the lake.”
Pennington and an employee of the Ponderosa Telephone Company who had also stopped, began flagging traffic through the area until Cal Fire Engine #4260 arrived to take over traffic control. Cedar Valley Engine #18 also responded, along with the CHP and Sierra National Forest.
According to a CHP officer at the scene, information from the driver was that the sewage had already been processed, and was being transported. The EPA and CHP Hazmat personnel will determine whether or not the spill constitutes a environmental hazard.
Mosher suffered minor to moderate injuries to his head and arm, and was transported to Urgent Care in Oakhurst to be checked out.
