A dump truck ran away while coming down the VC hill, blasted straight through town and flipped at the bottom of hill on the curve. So this is what I know: The paving company truck was suffering from difficulties climbing the pass on the Ennis side, pulling over at least once. On the downhill side it started to roll away on her picking up speed the entire way. People described the the truck as making horrible roaring noises and shaking violently, to the point where one person told me they were impressed the driver could keep it in the lane. It was shedding 'smoking parts of truck' as it drove. Gaining speed the entire time it flashed through town and started into the curve with far too much speed. The rears broke loose and the truck turned sideways. The tires bit and the truck flipped at least once, being fully airborne for 20 feet, crashed down on it's side and tumbling off the road ending up on its wheels with the driver hanging out of the passenger side window. The dump box protected the cab and the driver was badly banged up. They were flown to a hospital in Bozeman. The truck leaked 100+/- gallons of fuel but did not burn.
From what I can piece together from the stories this is what I think happened: I think the truck was losing the clutch, that the up hill climb was proving to be too much for it and that is why they had to pull off. I think that clutch then started to slip on the down grade and the driver ended up too fast to bring it to a stop before the brakes burned out and failed. I think the violent shaking and smoking truck parts were the clutch coming out the bottom. (a broken drive line ujoint would also do the same but not explain the pull off while climbing the grade) I think to second guess the driver (cut the corner harder and ride the gravel bank to a stop, take it off the road and out into the park before the speed built so much) is dumb. She brought that thing through a tourist trap, one road town at 3pm on an weekend and didn't hit anyone. That already was some kick-ass driving and more than most could have done. Lets just say that traveling asphalt companies are not known for maintenance and leave it at that.
Loss of brakes with a load full of people is my absolute biggest fear and it is a powerful reminder that you need to carefully check your shit on a regular basis.
