A road maintenance worker was seriously injured on Thursday morning when a truck that was too tall for the Greywater Pass tunnel became wedged at its entrance. The roof of the trailer struck the tunnel’s portal and dislodged a steel signal frame, which fell onto a crew working beside the road.
The 52-year-old worker was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Riverton with head and chest injuries. Doctors described his condition on Thursday evening as serious but stable.
Police question the driver
The truck, carrying building materials, measured 4.1 meters in height. The tunnel’s limit is 3.8 meters, shown on warning signs two kilometers and 500 meters before the entrance, as well as on an illuminated gantry.
Police said the 46-year-old driver, a foreign national, tested negative for alcohol and drugs. He was questioned and released, and an investigation for endangering public safety has been opened.
Our first question is why a driver passed three separate warnings without stopping. We are checking his route planning and the navigation system he was using.
Lena Fischer, spokesperson for the Northern Region police
Third incident this year
The tunnel was closed for nine hours while firefighters deflated the truck’s tires and slowly reversed it out. Traffic was diverted over the old pass road, adding nearly an hour to journeys between Greywater and the valley.
It is the third time this year that an oversized vehicle has hit the tunnel portal, and local officials say their patience has run out. Greywater’s mayor, Pavel Novak, called for automatic height detectors that would stop trucks with a red light and a barrier before they reach the entrance.
“We’ve been asking for this system for three years,” he said. “Today a man nearly died because of a missing piece of equipment that costs less than one week of tunnel repairs.”
The company that employs the injured worker said its crews would not return to the tunnel until additional safety measures were in place. The transport ministry said it would review the request for height detection equipment and report back within a month.
Engineers will inspect the tunnel portal on Friday before deciding whether further repairs or closures are needed.
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