It Took Three Trucks Hours To Recover Semi Hanging Over Cliff On Wyoming Highway

When a fully loaded semitrailer slipped off U.S. Highway 14-A near Lovell, Wyoming, and was left hanging precariously over a cliff Tuesday, it took a lot more than a standard tow truck to recover the dangling rig.

That’s where Hanser’s comes in, a Billings, Montana-based heavy-duty towing and recovery service. Even then, it took three large trucks, some strategic positioning, physics and hours of time to lift it off the mountainside.  

When they received the call about the incident on U.S. 14-A on Tuesday morning, they mobilized and arrived in Lovell with as much horsepower as they could muster.

“The outcome of not having enough equipment would be catastrophic for all of us,” said Hanser’s co-owner Shel Hanser. “If anything, we wanted to make sure we over-rig and overpower everything.”

With three massive trucks, lots of rigging and plenty of strategizing, Hanser’s was able to pull the entire truck and its enormous load up the cliff and back onto the road. It was a difficult job, but also a testament to theability of recovery professionals to handle anything that comes up in Wyoming and Montana.

“On a scale of one to 10, I’d say this was a nine,” Hanser said. “But my family’s been doing this for 60 years. We have quality equipment, quality people, quality training, and a culture of safety. When you put all those things together, you're just ready for that stuff.”

Down And Get Up Again

Hanser, a high school principal for more than 25 years, decided to rejoin the family business two years ago. He might have been employed elsewhere, but heavy-duty towing and recovery is a way of life for the Hansers and their team.

“The business has been part of it my whole life,” he said. “Even while I wasn't part of it, I was part of it. My dad was getting tired, the business was growing, and it needed some support within our family, so I came back into the business. That's how family businesses work.”

Hanser and his crew were aware of the perilous task they faced before they reached the spot where the semi-truck was precariously hanging off a hillside barrier on U.S. 14-A.

According to the Wyoming Highway Patrol, the driver was taking a narrow curve above the recommended speed of 35 mph when he overcorrected and slid on the jersey barrier. That overcorrection sent the semi-truck and its load of bentonite up and over the edge of one of the hillside barriers on the steep, winding highway traversing the mountain.

Amazingly, the driver escaped with only minor injuries. The semi-truck was heavily damaged, but its trailer and its cargo were still attached to it.

“We're fortunate that the driver wasn't hurt,” Hanser said.

The Wyoming Highway Patrol and is investigating driver inexperience and speed as contributing factors to the incident. U.S. 14-A was closed for most of Tuesday, as neither the Wyoming Highway Patrol nor the Big Horn County Sheriff's Office could get the semitrailer off the mountainside. But they knew who to call.

SCENE

Hanser and the team arrived at the scene knowing that the task of lifting the semitruck would be daunting. Nevertheless, they immediately began strategizing on how to quickly and safely get it back on the highway so that U.S. 14-A could reopen.

“We work off an acronym called SCENE,” he said. “Survey first, calculate the load, explain it to each other, check the nose, where you talk about it and what could go wrong, and execute. If we do that, and we don't deviate from that, we're typically pretty successful in recovering just about anything.”

First, the team assessed the condition of the truck and trailer while clearing debris from the highway. Hanser said the hard part was figuring out where to put the rigging to ensure the semi-truck was successfully hauled up the hillside.

“There weren’t a lot of places to hook to,” he said. “The semitruck and trailer stayed connected, so if we had enough lines on it, we could lift it as one unit. But we were really nervous about starting to pull and the kingpin not holding.”

The placement of the rigging was a critical factor in a successful recovery. One of the team members was harnessed and tethered down the hillside to attach rigging along the entire semi-truck, ensuring it all came up together.

Nobody was worried about the force needed to lift the semi-truck. Hanser said they brought plenty of “firepower” from Billings.

“We had three trucks with us,” he said. “The two main ones are called ‘rotators’ in the world of towing. Their booms go 360 degrees, which allows for a lot of flexibility to work off the side (of a cliff) and still have enough strength to lift.”

The third truck was a 50-ton wrecker, which was there for its weight and power. Hanser said it’s one of the biggest trucks in their fleet, and everyone feels better when it’s on a job.

“We like to have it, mainly because it's heavy,” he said. “It's a great anchor for everything that we do. We’d rather over-rig and overpower every job.”

Up And Over

Once everyone was comfortable with “plenty of firepower and plenty of rigging,” Hanser said the three-hour process of getting the truck off the cliff and back to the pavement was “really easy to do.”

“Once you get the lines on it, it all comes together,” he said. “We lifted it, turned it, brought it over the guardrail, and set it down.”

With extensive experience and sound strategy, the semi-truck and the trailer loaded with bentonite were lifted back onto U.S. 14-A as a single unit. Only then were the truck and trailer separated and hauled off.

The recovery of the slipped semi-truck was a complete success. The Hanser’s team ensured U.S. 14-A, a major transportation corridor through the Bighorn Mountains, was reopened as expeditiously as possible.

“Even as intense as it looked, there were some things that played in our favor a little bit,” Hanser said. “We had plenty of firepower and control, and enough equipment to get it done. It was pretty eventful and pretty exciting.”

Ready At The Drop Of A Truck

The Hanser’s name carries a lot of weight in northern Wyoming and Montana. When there’s a particularly perilous recovery, they’re usually the ones who get the call.

In July 2024, Hanser and his team recovered a vehicle from a hot spring in Yellowstone National Park that had plunged in the previous year. Their trucks hauled the fully submerged SUV out of Semi-Centennial Geyser after its driver and four occupants inadvertently drove into the roadside thermal pool.

Hanser said everyone at Hanser’s takes pride in the recovery reputation they’ve earned in the 60 years since the company was founded. The recovery of the semitruck on U.S. 14-A was an excellent demonstration of the professionalism and experience they’re known for.

“It’s the work we’ve built our company’s reputation around for decades,” he said. “It's about the really, really good people that we have with us. It’s about really good equipment. It's about preparation. We’ve worked hard, and we take pride in that.”

According to Hanser, they are always ready to move at the drop of a hat, truck, or trailer, and will do their damndest to ensure they do their job as quickly and safely as they can.  

“With our team and the unbelievable amount of equipment we have, we can mobilize and handle things like that, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he said. “We’re ready to go, all the time, to do the best we can to be safe, handle traffic, and get people moving. That's always our goal.”

Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.