By JESSE GRAHAM AND KATH GANNAWAY
INVERNESS Road in Mount Evelyn was closed for several hours on Friday morning, after a Yarra Ranges Council contractor rolled his truck off the road.
The truck driver was travelling up the road at 7am on Friday 6 February in a convoy towards Olinda with a viscose product for road sealing in the rear of the truck.
When the truck swerved to the side to avoid a car on the narrow road, which becomes one lane wide in some areas, it hit a ditch and rolled, spilling its contents.
The driver, a Geelong man in his twenties, was taken to Maroondah Hospital with minor head injuries, and a large-scale, clean-up operation ran through the morning.
A Yarra Ranges Council spokesperson said the road was expected to be slippery for days to come, due to the product being spilt on the road.
Yarra Ranges Highway Patrol Leading Senior Constable Chad Bullock said the drivers were directed up the road by their GPS devices, but did not know the conditions of the road.
“It’s not a good shortcut,” Leading Sen Const Bullock said.
“They shouldn’t have been on that road – it’s a convergence of circumstances.”
The road provides a quicker route between Mount Evelyn and Olinda than travelling via Swansea Road and the Mount Dandenong Tourist Road, but is unsuitable for trucks and large vehicles.
The road was re-opened later in the day.
