A pickup truck rolled over Thursday morning near the Durango-La Plata County Airport after sliding on spilled beer mash.
The crash occurred about 10:10 a.m. on Colorado Highway 172 near Airport Road.
Beer mash is a by-product of the brewing process. Local breweries, including Ska Brewing Co., typically give the mash to ranchers who feed it to livestock.
The Ford F-350 hit the mash, and the truck rolled, said Capt. Adrian Driscoll, with the Colorado State Patrol. The driver suffered minor injuries, and a passenger suffered moderate injuries and was taken to Mercy Regional Medical Center, Driscoll said.
Troopers were considering filing charges against the company responsible for spilling the beer mash, he said. They did not plan to cite the driver of the truck that crashed, he said.
“The trooper said it was really slippery out there,” Driscoll said. “Apparently there have been a couple of other instances of similar materials out on the roads. We’re trying to investigate to see if the same company is responsible.”
The Colorado Department of Transportation was notified of the beer mash spill at 9:24 a.m., Driscoll said. The highway department planned to send a plow to the location to clear the road, but apparently that hadn’t happened prior to the crash, he said.
CDOT spokeswoman Lisa Schwantes said crews were in the area and aware of the situation. A couple of employees were sent to Ignacio to retrieve a snowplow, but it took 10-15 minutes to get there, another 10-15 minutes to do a pre-trip inspection of the truck and another 10-15 minutes to arrive on scene.
Immediately following the crash, a pickup truck with a sweeping device was sent to the scene, she said.
No road closures occurred as a result of the crash, Driscoll said.
shane@durangoherald.com
