A city employee escaped with minor injuries Tuesday afternoon when the twin-axle truck he was driving overturned when a load of solid waste shifted.

It dumped between 15-20 tons of trash along the west side of South Sprigg just north of the Lone Star Cement plant. The truck sustained moderate damage.

Doug Kaminskey, environmental services coordinator for the city, said the driver, Lindsay Sample, 38, of Cape Girardeau, was taken to a hospital for X-rays of his arm and released. Sample is a solid-waste transfer-station operator.

Kaminskey said Sample was enroute from the transfer station to the landfill. "Our trash compactor is broken down, so we've been having to haul our solid waste out to the landfill until the compactor is repaired," he explained.

Kaminskey said the accident occurred as Sample was making a right turn to go north on Sprigg from an access road to the transfer station. He said the load apparently shifted as the truck made the turn, causing the attached trash luger to become top heavy and tip over. Witnesses told Kaminskey the truck was traveling at a slow speed when the accident occurred.

Before the truck could be uprighted, workers disconnected the cable holding the trash luger to the truck chassis. Then two wreckers stationed at either end of the truck and a backhoe were used to upright the truck.

The accident occurred at about 2:30 p.m. Police closed the street to traffic for about an hour while the wreckers uprighted the truck.

A back hoe was used to remove the trash from alongside the street.