Two Die In Separate North Carolina Tractor-Trailer Accidents | Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp

This week saw two more deadly truck accidents on North Carolina interstates and highways. 

In the first accident, a big rig ran off of the southbound lanes of I-85 in Alamance County, North Carolina. The tractor-trailer, which was hauling a load of bottled water, ran off of the right side of the road and fell down an embankment where the cab was submerged underwater. The truck was found three hours after the accident at just before 1 in the morning – the trucker was found dead by rescue crews. No one else was involved in the truck accident, which took place near Jimmie Kerr Road and it is not clear what caused the truck driver to run off of the road. The North Carolina Department of transportation is cleaning up the big rig accident, which is still under investigation.

A second deadly truck accident occurred near Charlotte, North Carolina, on Interstate 77. In this big rig crash, a trucker pulled onto the shoulder of the road and turned on his hazard lights after his engine started to overheat. While he worked on restarting his truck, a car slammed into the back of his 18-wheeler. The driver of the car died instantly and was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. North Carolina State Troopers say that the man, 37-year-old John Johnson, did not hit his brakes before hitting the truck and was not wearing a safety belt. The cause of the truck accident is unknown.