At approximately 9:30pm on Thursday night, September 30, a truck rolled over on Burley Griffin Way, roughly seven kilometres east of Harden.

The semi-trailer carrying frozen food products was travelling northbound and left the road before rolling onto its side.

Clean-up crews removing the frozen food off the road.

Fire and Rescue Captain Wal Leonow said the emergency service received a call for help following the incident.

“We got called to a heavy vehicle accident on the Burley Griffin Way, not far from the McMahons Reef Road turnoff,” Wal said.

“The driver was uninjured but was assessed at the scene by paramedics.

“Fire and Rescue isolated power and fuel, and also switched off the fridge motor which was still running.

The scene of the accident was assessed on Thursday night and was given the all-clear as the truck was off the road before the clean-up operation occurred on Friday morning.

“The area was deemed safe until the morning, while the truck was left in place overnight because of the dangers of recovery last night in the darkness and the storm,” Wal continued.

“The recovery effort continued on Friday morning under the control of Hilltops Council.”

Heavy storms played an impact on the crash, causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle.

“The driver failed to negotiate a slight bend in the road. He said that the storm conditions weren’t the best and the strong winds swayed the truck off the road,” the Fire and Rescue Captain said.

Investigations are continuing to find the exact cause of the accident.

Fortunately, the driver wasn’t injured but was transported into Harden following the crash for an assessment.

Police and ambulance services from Young attended the incident, as well as several Rural Fire Services from the area.

“There was a Rural Fire Service member that was on scene and put him into his own personal vehicle, which was there, which kept him warm and out of the storm until the paramedics arrived,” Wal said.

The heavy storms, fueled with thunder and lightning, made the safety and cleanup operation challenging for emergency services during the rapid response at the scene of the crash.

“It made difficult for us due to the wind and the rain, and the visibility for oncoming traffic wasn’t the best either so we called the local council for some traffic control,” Wal said.

“All services worked well considering the tough conditions.”

Tim Warren