Drivers on Highway 285 near Morrison, Colorado, had themselves a no-good, very bad day this week. That’s because, on Tuesday, more than 50 vehicles that were traveling along a stretch of that highway ended up with flat tires, or worse.
A roofing company truck caused the damage when it spilled several boxes of nails and screws onto the highway at around 12:19 p.m., near the Morrison exit at milepost 247, according to Colorado State Police (CSP).
“I kept driving and I made it down to the Golden area, and my check tire came on,” motorist Laurie Kennedy told 9 News. “I saw a screw in my back driver side tire. Went up to Discount Tire, and the gentleman at Discount was like, ‘Um, do you realize that you have more nails in here?’ and I was like, ‘No, I do not.'”
Kennedy said her front driver’s side tire had 12 nails and screws in it. All told, the damage ended up costing her more than $1,800 for new tires.
“The one that was leaking the quickest, one of the nails went in sideways, and so they weren’t even able even to patch it, but they weren’t able to fix the other ones because of the sheer amount of screws inside of my tire, so I had to replace all of them,” Kennedy said.
Thinking back, she recalled spotting a semi-truck by the side of the road, but she didn’t give it much thought until she learned what had happened.
More than 50 people called the Colorado State Police about damage caused by the nails and screws
Colorado State Police also reported that five other vehicles with damaged tires were at the scene when they arrived. More than fifty people called CSP between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday to report that they had impacted their vehicles.
Another driver reported having to patch three tires and replace the fourth due to nails and screws. Les Schwab in Littleton said they serviced four vehicles. Big O Tires in Conifer said 15 vehicles came in with nails and screws in their tires. Both places reported that the number of nails and screws embedded in the tires they saw ranged from three to 12.
Troopers eventually located the roofing company’s truck and spoke with the driver, who assisted investigators. The Colorado Department of Transportation said crews used hand brooms and magnetic rollers to clean up the highway.
“Some of the people that actually pulled over with the truck got their information and I actually, I reached out to my insurance company first, and they said to file a claim with the trucking company,” Kennedy said.
“I just hope that the people that were affected do their due diligence and put pressure on either the trucking company or the insurance company to make sure that he’s held accountable.”
Colorado State Police said that as of Wednesday afternoon, they had not charged the semi-truck driver, but he could still receive a traffic infraction citation.