Logging truck accident blocks Highway 2 early Wednesday

A truck scattered logs hundreds of feet across Highway 2, blocking the road for over three hours Wednesday morning.

A second accident occurred as a result, but no one was hurt in either incident.

Sgt. Duane Bowers of the Montana Highway Patrol attributes the log truck accident to icy conditions.

“The road transitioned from being really wet to solid ice,” Bowers said. “The pup trailer started to fish tail, and the driver couldn’t get it under control.”

The truck was headed westbound at 5:15 a.m. about 18 miles outside Libby when its trailer struck the snow bank on the left side of the road, causing the trailer to detach from the truck and flip its contents all over the highway.

The driver, Roddy Gadeberg of Richmond Trucking in Kalispell, tried to warn oncoming traffic with a flashlight, but the first car to arrive at the scene drove past him and into the logs. The driver, Betsy Aarstad, was wearing her seatbelt and only suffered minor injuries.

Because there was no cell phone service in the area, law enforcement wasn’t dispatched to the scene until about 6 a.m.

Cars and school buses were held up as both lanes of travel were blocked for the first hour-and-a-half as officials scrambled to clear off the road.

Moe Logging cleared the road, loading the logs onto an empty truck. Montana Department of Transportation personnel arrived later and helped finish cleaning debris off the road. 

Both lanes were open by 8:47 a.m.