FREELAND — The driver of a cement truck escaped serious injury when his truck overturned Monday while making a left turn from Highway 525 to Honeymoon Bay Road in Freeland.

John Buechner, 52, of Freeland was driving the truck for Rempel Brothers Concrete, a Greenbank construction firm.

According to the Washington State Patrol, speed may have been a factor in the accident.

Sgt. Jason Longoria, supervisor of the Oak Harbor state patrol detachment said the driver will be cited for either driving too fast for the conditions or for failure to stay on the road.

Although he didn’t hit anyone else he can still be cited, explained Trooper Longoria.

“Drivers are expected to stay on the road,” Longoria said.

Bruce Rempel, co-owner of the company, was on the scene soon after the accident happened about 10:30 a.m.

“We are just glad that John was not injured,” Rempel said. Rempel drove his driver home and returned to watch the tow company struggle to right the heavy truck.

“The truck has nine cubic yards of concrete and the driver was on his way to a construction site,” Rempel said.

Rempel said the driver was an experienced driver and the Department of Transportation gave the truck a clean bill of health at the scene.

“There was nothing wrong with the mechanics or the tires that would cause the accident,” Rempel said. “Accidents happen.”

Rempel faulted the design of the Honeymoon Bay Road intersection at Highway 525.

He pointed to several cars as they pulled up to the stop sign at Honeymoon Bay Road.

“See how far into the intersection they have to creep before pulling out onto the highway,” Rempel said as he pointed toward the stop sign.

Rempel said his driver had told him a van was stopped and pulled out to see oncoming traffic, forcing him to take the turn wider than normal.

Longoria, the State Patrol trooper, said there have been problems before at the busy intersection.

“It is one of the busiest intersections on the South End. We have had a number of collisions there, usually because drivers fail to yield to oncoming traffic,” he said.

It took crews and two tow trucks from a Mount Vernon towing company and a top loader from Whidbey Topsoil several hours to right the truck.

“The truck is a total loss,” Rempel said. “We’ve only had it in the fleet for a few months. It hurts us, because we are not a large company. We only have a total of seven concrete trucks,” Rempel said,

Rempel said the $70,000 truck and its load were completely insured.

“It was carrying about $1,000 worth of concrete,” he said.