Runaway truck loses 41,000 pounds of beer on highway ramp

July 19 (UPI) -- A driver traveling on a Colorado road captured video of a truck losing 41,000 pounds of beer while going up a runaway ramp.

Rachel Smith of Durango said she could smell smoke July 12 while driving over Wolf Creek Pass and she soon was able to see the truck with its brakes smoking.

"I just crossed over the top of the pass and I could smell brakes and there wasn't anybody around," Smith told KUSA-TV. "As I got closer I could see a truck and he was just smoking like crazy, and I knew then he was in trouble."

Smith said the truck was going about 60-65 mph when it approached a runaway ramp.

"He was coming up on that first ramp, and I thought, 'No problem, he'll hit that,'" Smith told the Durango Herald. "But he went right on by it."

She said the driver was able to make it to the second ramp.

"The second one is it, after that it's a switchback. He would have been off the cliff," Smith said.

Smith watched as the truck went up the ramp and lost its load -- about 41,000 pounds of Bud Light beer.

"After that load came out, as I was walking up there it was just an absolute sprinkler, a fountain of beer. It was everywhere. I hollered at him and asked if he was OK and he said he was fine. He was just, just really shook up of course," she said.

The Colorado State Patrol said the driver, Adam Catic, 25, was not injured. They said he did the right thing by steering toward the ramp.

"Fantastic driver, I mean how he kept that thing on the road without rolling it or hitting the side of the mountain or anything else I'm not sure," Smith said. "But he got to the second ramp and he made it up there."

The Colorado Department of Transportation issued a "Beware the Wolf" warning earlier in the summer for truckers planning to travel over Wolf Creek Pass.