Cement truck driver dies, two Metro officers injured in accident

By John Taylor (contact)

Published Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013 | 2:40 p.m.

Updated Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013 | 4 p.m.

A cement truck driver was killed early Wednesday afternoon after his truck crossed the median on Summerlin Parkway, collided with an unmarked Metro Police pickup heading the opposite way, then overturned and dropped 20 feet into a wash, authorities said.

The accident occurred about 1:20 p.m. and sent the two Metro officers in the pickup to University Medical Center with injuries that were not life-threatening, according to Trooper Loy Hixson of the Nevada Highway Patrol. The 44-year-old cement truck driver died at the scene, Hixson said.

Crews from Las Vegas Fire & Rescue extinguished a fire at the scene and extracted the driver from the truck, according to Tim Szymanski, a Fire & Rescue spokesman.

Hixson said the cement truck was westbound on Summerlin Parkway near North Rampart Boulevard and crossed over the median into the eastbound lane. After it was hit by the pickup on its right front side, the cement truck continued on until it wound up up in a nearby wash, where the truck overturned onto its side. A bystander suffered cut hands trying to get to the cement truck driver, Szymanski said.

The accident shut down the eastern lanes of Summerlin Parkway from Town Center Drive to Rampart Boulevard, the Nevada Highway Patrol reported.

Hixson said it was too early in the investigation to determine what caused the cement truck driver to cross over the median.