Meat truck plunges off Spaghetti Bowl

Jace Radke

Monday, Jan. 29, 2001 | 10:39 a.m.

Shifting sides of beef may have been at least partially to blame for a tractor-trailer falling from one of the Spaghetti Bowl's flyover ramps and crashing onto a dirt area in the interchange Sunday afternoon.

The accident occurred about 2:30 p.m., when the the truck was on the curving flyover ramp from southbound Interstate 15 to southbound U.S. 95. The driver was in serious condition this morning.

The trailer tipped onto the guardrail, then fell over the rail to the dirt below, Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Alan Davidson said.

"It looks like the hanging racks of meat in the trailer may have shifted as the driver came around the curve in the ramp," Davidson said. "Speed also could have played a factor in the accident."

The trailer pulled the truck off the ramp, with the cab going over last, Las Vegas Fire Capt. Dexter McCastle said.

The truck caught fire after crashing more than 50 feet to the ground, but passers-by were able to pull the driver and his dog from the wreckage, said Juan Romero, who witnessed the accident as he drove south on I-15.

"It was less than a minute after it fell, and people were dragging him out," Romero said. "One lady was a nurse, and she stayed with the driver until paramedics arrived."

The driver, Steven Powell, 37, of Washington state, was in serious condition at University Medical Center this morning, and the dog was not injured and was doing fine. Powell was driving for an Oklahoma-based company.

Firefighters were able to put the fire out, leaving the charred remains of the truck's cab and the sides of beef covered in flakes of the refrigerated trailer's insulation.

The accident remains under investigation, Davidson said.