http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/5822418/ Crash shuts down portion of I-40 in Johnston County Posted: 47 minutes ago Clayton, N.C. — The right lane of Interstate 40 near N.C. Highway 42 in Johnston County is blocked due to a tractor-trailer crash, authorities said. The tractor-trailer went down an embankment, damaged a guard rail and leaked fuel around 7 a.m. The driver might have sustained injuries, officials said. No other details were available.
Its surreal to watch something like that happen. I was on my way to Rocky Mount some time ago when a tractor-trailer swerved from the left lane off the right shoulder and into the trees. This happened about a half mile ahead of me. There were already probably 10 people out of their vehicles and rushing to the trucker's aid. As soon as I saw it happening, I was dialing *47 (*HP).
Back in the early 80's I was in a co workers camaro and we were coming back across the GWB (George Washington Bridge for all you non yankees) into New Jersey. We were on the Route 3 part of the highway heading towards Hackensack. Some one had cut off a big rig and he swerved right behind us and crashed through the fencing and dropped nose first about 80 feet down to I-80. The truck couldn't of been more then about 10-15 feet from the back of the car I was in. I never did find out what happened to the driver
Scariest one I saw was a trailer come off an overpass in Ohio (a number of years ago) it dropped on a vehicle about 5 cars in front of me. I doubt they even saw it coming.
Hught, I know that must've been tough to see...and think about for a few days. Reminds me a bit of that story out of the midwest a few years ago where highway contractors were putting up an overpass and had not secured one of the steel beams good enough. It fell within hours on a Dodge Durango right across the passenger compartment and sent the front end (windshield forward) a couple of hundred feet down the highway without the rest of the SUV or its occupants. My FIL has seen a couple of bad ones. One of those happened probably 20 years ago. He just happened to be the first person upon a serious accident where a log truck blew through a stop sign at 70 mph on a rural road. They said he didn't even touch the brakes. A couple, on their way to Wed. evening church services just happened to be passing through that same intersection at the very worst possible time. My FIL is a pretty tough guy, but my wife said he couldn't eat for days after that.
I was south of Cleveland on I 77, in maybe 1994. A Toyota Supra was coming up behind me crossing all lanes, and moving fast. He passed me doing about 90 mph, i looked over to give a *** look, and the driver was either asleep, or had had a heart attack. He then swerved in front of me went to the left median, hit the concrete support that hold up the big I 77 sign, went airborn and hit the sign post head on. The sign started falling as i drove under it. There was policce and an ambulance right behind me by chance. It was scary. Never found out but he was probably dead.
I've told ya'll before my Mom drove 18 wheelers for several years. She was out west and a minivan wrecked and flipped in front of her with 7 people in it. They weren't wearing seatbelts and people were flying out of the car all over the place. She was the only one around. Several fatalities and many serious injuries including kids and there was little she could do until the authorities got there. She had nightmares for years about the people being ejected from that van as it rolled. :cry:
