Driver flips truck over I-795 embankment
By Josh Ellerbrock
Published in News on May 31, 2013 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/MICHAEL BETTS
Members of Fremont Fire Department check an 18-wheeler that crashed into a guardrail on I-795 near the Fremont exit on Thursday afternoon. One lane was closed to traffic for hours while the accident scene was being cleaned up. A road crew was expected to make repairs to the guardrail today.
FREMONT -- A tractor-trailer struck a guardrail on I-795 and ended up at the bottome of an embankment just south of Fremont Thursday.
Officers said the driver, Howard Arnette, 54, of Harner, S.C., lost control of the rig, which was carrying bundles of wooden poles as it traveled down the highway at about 1:30 p.m.
The truck then flipped over and rolled down an embankment.
Arnette came away from the accident with only minor injuries.
He was charged by the state Highway Patrol with failure to maintain control of the vehicle.
At the scene of the accident, the guard rail was bent and flattened at the point of impact, and a single tire lay at the top of the embankment. The tractor- trailer itself, warped on its side, lay at the bottom of the hill leaning against a stand of trees.
It took more than six hours for a crane and other equipment to pull the wreckage from beside the highway.
Fremont police, Fremont Fire Department, Wayne County EMS and Highway Patrol responded.