Heavy rain brought mud and debris onto Interstate 70 last week. A man who was trapped on the highway in the Grizzy Creek burn area took matters into his own hands when he found a loader, reports 9NEWS.
On Thursday night (July 29) several people who were also trapped on the highway overnight watched the incident unfold.
“Yeah, he went down to a rest area down below, which he shouldn’t probably have gone down there, saw a loader, opened the door, the keys were in it. He knows how to operate it, so he started operating it during the middle of the night," one witness Kristin Thomas told 9NEWS.
An official from the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) confirmed that the equipment belonged to them and was sitting there because it needed repairs.
"Somebody got in one of loaders from Bair Ranch and proceeded down the interstate," said Mike Goolsby, CDOT Region 3 transportation director. "Unfortunately the loader they got in was one that was waiting to get repaired. They used it until they ran out of hydraulic fluid."
Thomas said they didn't hear from authorities until around 6:00 A.M. on Friday, July 30, after spending the night in the car.
“CDOT came, it was their loader, and talked to him and thanked him, but then they took over doing the work," said Thomas. "He did awesome. Everybody couldn’t believe how much he did.”
According to witnesses, police officers arrived wanting to arrest the man but people advocated for him saying, "No, he was helping us out."
"The nice thing about it is the individual that was operating it was kind enough not to ruin it and turned it off when they realized the check engine light came on, so a valiant effort but unfortunately grabbed a piece of equipment we were waiting to work on," said Goolsby.