On Behalf of O’Malley Tunstall PLLC | May 4, 2020 | Truck Accidents

The 94-mile drive from Raleigh to Archdale takes about an hour and a half. Interstate 85 essentially divides the town of about 11,000 residents in half. The busy highway was recently the site of a tractor-trailer crash that injured one of the town’s police officers as well as a North Carolina Department of Transportation worker.

The big rig wreck had its genesis when shortly before midnight, the North Carolina Highway Patrol responded to the scene of a separate motor vehicle crash on I-85. DOT workers also arrived at the crash scene and were helping to re-route traffic.

It was then that a 38-year-old truck driver behind the wheel of a Freightliner tractor-trailer struck a pair of Archdale police cars and then crashed into a pair of DOT vehicles.

According to a news report, four of the vehicles in the five-vehicle crash caught fire.

The trucker and his passenger sustained minor injuries, as did the DOT worker. All three were transported to a medical center about five miles north of the crash site. The injured police officer was taken to a hospital about 20 miles northeast of the wreck scene.

There was no indication in the news report about the officer’s medical condition.

The trucker was charged with failure to move his vehicle over from the initial crash site, as well as failure to reduce his vehicle’s speed.

As you undoubtedly know, in order to prevent secondary crashes, North Carolina law requires drivers to move over (if there’s room) where emergency vehicles are present.