Vancouver, WA : Truck driver cited for crash that left semi blocking Interstate Bridge on Wednesday morning, June 17, 2015
Long before J.J. Wagner ever saw the crash, a flipped semi blocking all the Interstate Bridge’s southbound lanes early Wednesday morning, he had already checked his computer before driving to Portland from Hazel Dell.
“I thought there was a huge problem on the bridge,” says Wagner. “Yeah, there was indeed.”
The Washington State Patrol says the semi, carrying empty wine bottles to California, clipped the bridge’s right-hand barriers as it came onto the Interstate Bridge.
The big rig careened across all of the southbound lanes and hit the barriers on the left-hand side of the bridge and then flipped onto its side.
The crash blocked all of the southbound lanes on the Interstate Bridge for hours.
KATU News talked with one man who was in the cab of the semi tractor-trailer when it rolled over.
“Man, it was crazy. I can't really explain it,” said Ronnie, after the crash. “Nothing like that has ever happened before.”
Ronnie was sleeping in the back of the semi’s cab when it rolled.
He and the driver weren’t hurt.
Ronnie doesn’t know what went wrong.
“Middle of a bridge, climbing out, the truck full of smoke, so I was hoping no gas was spilling or anything. I just got out as quickly as I could,” Ronnie said.
The semi belongs to Black Rose Trucking of Kent Washington near Seattle.
A check of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration records shows Black Rose has been operating since 2010, with no crashes like this before.
But one of its two trucks was caught speeding in Colorado in February of last year, going anywhere from 6 to 10 mph over the speed limit.
Washington’s Department of Transportation also compiled data that shows semi crashes like the one Wednesday morning are rare.
During the past five years there were 150 crashes in the southbound lanes on the Interstate Bridge, or just before the bridge.
Thirteen of those 150 crashes involved semi tractor-trailers.
Most of the crashes involved cars, vans or light trucks.
Source :
Truck driver in I-5 Interstate Bridge crash cited for negligent driving