Mineral County residents are encouraged to exercise caution while traveling to, from, and through the area.
Last Wednesday night (September 20), a semi-trailer carrying dog food caught fire on the US-95 bypass across from McDonalds, likely due to the brakes getting too hot. Fortunately, the driver had time to disconnect the tractor and it happened on a flat part of the road. That section of the bypass was closed for a couple of hours, and everything was cleaned up around it in a day or two.
Kayla Anderson – Crews work on a semi fire on Sept. 20 on the U.S. 95 bypass in Hawthorne.
That same morning, a lightning strike hit a bush on SR-359. The resulting blaze was extinguished at once, causing no substantial damage to the area. A Mineral County Fire Department spokesperson said that the fire department often gets called out on minor fires caused by lightning strikes and a lot of them are not found.
The day before that, on September 19 at around 8 p.m., the Nevada State Police responded to a reported crash on southbound US-95 at mile marker 34. The NHP’s preliminary investigation shows that a 2017 Dodge Ram 1500 was traveling northbound on US-95 near mile marker 34, approaching a southbound 2015 Kenworth semi-tractor trailer.
The Dodge Ram veered into the southbound lanes and into the path of the 2015 Kenworth semi-tractor to pass an uninvolved semi-truck. The Kenworth semi-tractor trailer struck the left front of the Dodge Ram, which overturned and rested on the northbound lane outside shoulder south of the Dodge Ram.
The driver of the Kenworth semi-tractor trailer was transported from the scene to a nearby hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries but the driver of the Dodge Ram, Edward Spacek Jr., a 67-year-old male from Bullhead City, Arizona, succumbed to injuries sustained in the crash and was declared dead on-scene.
This marks the 36th fatal crash for Nevada State Police Highway Patrol – Northern Command for 2023.
