March 14, 2018
Colorado

Wind turbine piece falls off semi, power outage and Highway 50 blocked

Written By Caiti Blase | KOAA News 5 | Mar 14, 2018 | www.koaa.com

OTERO COUNTY – It’s not something you see every day: a huge piece of a wind turbine blocking the highway.

That’s exactly what happened early Tuesday morning near Fowler in Otero County.

A semi truck lost it’s load and the accident shut down part of Highway 50 for most of the day. Colorado State Patrol says the size and complexity of the turbine played a role in the accident.

While losing the load, a power line was also knocked over causing an outage for people in Fowler.

“There was no power in the house. Looked out the window, no power at any of the other houses.”

When Zach Mason woke up Tuesday morning he knew something was wrong.

“Looked out the front window and saw all these emergency vehicles.”

After making some phone calls he soon learned about the accident near his home. Mason says he uses Highway 50 every day, but on Tuesday he wasn’t able to get in or out of his property. He says that wasn’t the only issue. The power returned around 7 a.m., but as of late Tuesday afternoon he still didn’t have power to pump water for his livestock.

It’s a situation Mason never wants to be in again not only for the inconvenience, but also for safety.

“They’re just lucky somebody didn’t get killed…if they’re really that difficult to transport and they’re that dangerous should they really be on the highway?”

Colorado State Patrol says no one was hurt in the accident. The wind turbine piece was removed from Highway 50 around 2:30 p.m. The road opened back up by about 4:30 p.m.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2018/03/14/wind-turbine-piece-falls-off-semi-power-outage-and-highway-50-blocked/