Two Tractor Trailers, Six Cars Crash on I-81

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Crews work to clean up a mess on Interstate 81 after six cars and two tractor trailers crash.

Two Tractor Trailers, Six Cars Crash on I-81

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By Candice Nelson
WSLS10 Reporter
Published: March 1, 2008

State Police say a crash on Interstate 81 on Friday night involved two tractor trailers and six cars. It happened in the southbound lane near mile marker 124. Police say it happened in the area where the lanes cut down from three lanes to two. That’s where Roger Peterson, from Texas, overcorrected and slid off the hillside.

Police say other cars began to slow down to see what was going on. Meanwhile, a second tractor trailer trying to avoid the slow-moving cars lost control and slid into the median. That’s when things began to snowball and more cars became involved in the crash, a total of six.

Now, crews are working to clean up the mess.

“This is probably one of the worst accidents we’ve ever had,” said Johnny Bowman, an employee for TJ’s Truck and Auto Service, a company that works accidents in Montgomery County.

It had both southbond lanes blocked throughout Friday night until one lane opened on Saturday morning. Bowman said they had to pull the trailer up to the top of the hill because it originally slid further into the valley.

Crews lined up to pass about 1,000 boxes of aloe, the cargo the truck was hauling, back to the top. When that’s finished they have to finish pulling the truck out. But Bowman thinks that will take a while.

“We’re wanting to get done by dark but that’s not gonna happen. I’m thinking midnight,” Bowman said.

Luckily, police say nobody was seriously hurt. Three people were taken to the hospital for minor injuries. Police say both tractor trailer drivers were charged with reckless driving.

Reader Reactions

Posted by ( Tanker ) on March 05, 2008 at 9:57 am

The main point I was trying to make concerns the citation of the second driver. He’s starting over a hill, beginning to get back up to the speed limit when he goes around the curve to find the road blocked by cars slowing down out of curiousity not concern. He chooses to go thru the median instead of running over the cars. It is hard to quickly stop a tractor trailer, especially going down hill in a curve.
By doing this he risks his own safety to ensure that he doesn’t harm the people in the cars. He receives a reckless driving citation. Six cars are involved in the accident. How many of them were cited for failure to control their vehicle or failure to maintain safe following distance? Did the media even ask the trooper? Cars being cited isn’t news worthy, however it is quickly pointed out that the truck drivers received tickets. Every person with any type of drivers license is responsible for the vehicle they are driving. If the second truck driver was reckless for not being able to stop his truck, why weren’t the drivers of the cars ticketed the same since their vehicles are a lot easier to stop it that short of distance.

As for the schools, yes some of them give you the license as long as you give them the tuition. The quality schools are longer and usually cheaper but you have to pass in order for them to sign off on you getting your CDL. The school I attended was PTDI certified and required a minimum of 40 hours supervised behind the wheel training. I started my orientation with Tyson Foods. They required 8 weeks minimum with a trainer, a skills test at the beginning, middle and end of the training which included an actual road test. For at least the first 4 weeks, the trainer or trainee had to be on duty in the passenger seat while the other was driving. The truck was operated as if only one person was available to drive it. Once the midterm tests were passed then they could run as a team. Their trainers had to have two years of experience, at least one of them being with Tyson, with no safety violations.
I have dealt with Swift drivers on the road and know of their reputation. I’ll leave that subject alone.

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Posted by ( driver ) on March 03, 2008 at 8:09 pm

Only 14 hours of training for all CDL drivers is untelling? UNTELLING not a word!
I have been a driver over ten years and the quality of drivers is in the toilet. Most schools 14 hrs is stretching the time behind the wheel.
Then the trucking companies place them with a trainer who rides with them for several weeks before they are put in a truck of their own.
Yes and those trainers run BOTH logs, teach nothing, and in my opinion are not even trained well enough to drive themselves. The schools are a scam and these young men and women are getting killed. You become a trainer after six months on the road. I took orientation with Swift and my road test was in the parking lot; and I received a trainer certificate in the mail. Best two week vacation I ever had.
There are good drivers out there as stated by Tanker, but most are terminated for refusing to drive unsafe trucks or over their hours of service.
I have hundreds of hours of tape recordings of dispatchers, breakdown, terminal service managers, general managers, fleet managers, safety department officers, company trainers, all explaining how to get around the laws of the FMCSR.
Why would I tape record their direct orders to violate the laws? Because I have been driving over ten years and learned to watch my back. I take photographs of qual com messages also, because they mysteriously erase.
Education of these kids wanting to drive trucks is not a bad thing.

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Posted by ( Tanker ) on March 03, 2008 at 12:40 pm

The comment posted already puts the blame completely on the truck drivers. Most companies require a school certificate along with a CDL if the driver doesn’t have any verifiable experience. Where this person came up with only 14 hours of training for all CDL drivers is untelling. Where there are some schools which do have low standards on their training, the quality schools have higher standards than most of the states require. Then the trucking companies place them with a trainer who rides with them for several weeks before they are put in a truck of their own.
Both of these drivers were charged with reckless driving. What about the drivers of the personal vehicles who slowed down in a blind curve while in the travel lanes of the interstate. If they wanted to check on the 1st truck they should of pulled out of the lanes of travel onto the shoulder. These drivers should have been charged with reckless driving also. If they did not have the road blocked from their desire to see a wreck, the second truck would not have had to go thru the median to avoid them. If they were slowing down to help the first truck, then they would have been pulling off the road instead of staying in the lanes of travel. Many of the accidents involving tractor trailers are caused by the recklessness of people in their personal vehicles, however the truck driver is the first one to be blamed. If it had been trucks slowing down because of the 1st truck wrecking and a car went thru the median to avoid them, the truck drivers would still be the ones given the ticket for impeding traffic. I’m not saying that there are not any bad truck drivers out there. Like in any profession, you’ll have good and bad. But it has gotten to the point where the truck driver is guilty until proven innocent.
These drivers whom you so quickly condemn are people who has given up the life you enjoy with your family so you are able to have everything you do have. From groceries, gas, clothes, and everything else you buy or have in your home, without the truck driver you would not have any of it. There used to be a respect for the truck driver because people realized this. Now they are treated more as a nusiance. Of course in today’s society, no one has respect for anyone or anything unless it is for their personal gain.

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Posted by ( driver ) on March 02, 2008 at 2:34 pm

Police say both tractor trailer drivers were charged with reckless driving. What about the multi-billion dollar trucking industry that sends these drivers out with little to no training? Nobody was seriously hurt as is the case with over 10,000 of these accidents every year. Over five thousand public citizens are killed every year by under trained drivers of semi trucks. The American Trucking Industry has set up the laws to avoid all liability to their self insured companies. Just look at the laws their lobbyists have gotten passed. regulations, 49 C.F.R. section 391.41( b) ( 7, 8,9 ) as established in 1971 and revised in 1983) permits qualification of individuals to drive a commercial motor vehicle if that person has no established medical history or clinical diagnosis of any condition which is likely to cause loss of consciousness or the loss of ability to control a commercial vehicle. They have developed amendments like this one: When, in determining an individual’s fitness to drive, headache and accompaniments of headache are judged chronically or periodically incapacitating, disqualification may be warranted. The chronic or periodic use of certain headache medications may warrant disqualification. The driver is guilty even with a headache, and the insurance lawyers for the self insured trucking industry will make the denial on all deaths due to an obvious bad decision by the driver with chronic or periodic headaches. The FMCSA this year claimed it would be unsafe to lower the hours of service from 11 hours driving to 8 hours driving? Everyone is preoccupied with the war in Iraq; but more young children are killed on our highways as drivers and passengers in big truck accidents and know one seems to care that these drivers only get 14 hours OTR training and they are CDL drivers. The billionaires have a “license to kill” and our political parties attend their cocaine pool parties with nude minor girls to discuss the world problems? Just another appeasement of the demons in all of us; in this psychosocial society.

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