Shocking moment couple are almost killed after their truck struck huge POTHOLE while driving down snowy Colorado interstate, causing trailer they were towing to flip over
- Thomas Kuemmel and fiancée Leslie Brock were driving on I-70 toward Denver
- The vehicle behind’s dashcam caught it all as they started to spin out of control
- Despite obeying the speed limit, they were still cited for driving carelessly
A Las Vegas couple are thankful to be alive after they were seen on dashcam footage hitting a pothole in the Colorado mountains that caused the trailer they were towing to flip over.
Thomas Kuemmel and his fiancée Leslie Brock were driving on I-70 towards Denver with a camper trailer in tow as they headed to Loveland Ski Area, Colorado Springs.
The vehicle traveling behind them caught dashcam footage of the moment they started to spin out of control, just before 4:30 p.m. Saturday.
A pothole on the highway caused them to nearly crash, while tipping over the trailer behind them.
‘We were just cruising along and next thing you, know the trailer starts to jerk and it makes us lose absolute control and it was very scary. I thought I was going to die,’ said Brock, who was riding in the passenger seat.
A Las Vegas couple are thankful to be alive after they were seen on dashcam footage hitting a pothole in the Colorado mountains that caused the trailer they were carrying to flip over
Kuemmel said they saw no trouble ahead and were driving either at or below the speed limit at the time.
‘There was a big jerk, and I feel that the trailer was pushing on the truck and then I started swerving out of control and spinning,’ Kuemmel told Fox31.
While they weren’t injured, the couple were cited by the state police for driving carelessly.
Kuemmel, who co-owns a photo booth business with Brock, according to his LinkedIn page, claims he tried to tell Colorado State Police that the potholes were responsible for the accident.
The state’s department of transportation shut down I-70 just two days later to repair a pothole, though it’s unclear if it was the one that caused the couple’s accident.
‘When someone does not agree with a citation, both sides can appear in court and present the information and evidence before a judge, who would then make a decision in the case,’ CSP Public Information Officer Gary Cutler said in a statement.
The state will also allow the couple to go through the process to file claims for the damage.
Other drivers complained at how poorly they felt the state police handled the shutdown for the crash.
‘We saw a CDOT sign that said I-70 closed – must exit at 216,’ Todd Phillips told 9NEWS.
Thomas Kuemmel (pictured) and fiancee Leslie Brock were driving on I-70 toward Denver on what was going to be a trip to Loveland Ski Area in Colorado Springs with a camper trailer in tow
‘We were just cruising along and next thing you, know the trailer starts to jerk and it makes us lose absolute control and it was very scary. I thought I was going to die,’ said Brock (pictured), who was riding in the passenger seat
While they weren’t injured, the couple were cited by the state police for driving carelessly
The vehicle behind theirs’ dashcam caught it all as they started to spin out of control a little before 4:30 p.m. Saturday
The state’s department of transportation shut down I-70 just two days later to repair a pothole, though it’s unclear if it was the one that caused the couple’s accident
However, Phillips claims he did not see the sign until after he passed the exit necessary to detour.
‘I realized we got lots of people, got lots of traffic,’ Phillips said. ‘We can’t magically fix that, but you can certainly mitigate it. And I think we do an extremely poor job of that.’
Kuemmel and Block both said that they were just thankful to be alive.