Long-haul trucker Glen Hamblin struggled to stay awake as he rolled down Interstate 77 through North Carolina. South of Statesville he began searching for a safe, legal place to stop for a nap.
“Every exit, I was looking and hoping to find a sign that said ‘Rest Area,’” Hamblin, 53, of Hyrum, Utah, said Monday.
He was afraid to sleep on the shoulder of an exit ramp. He couldn’t afford a parking ticket.
It was just before 2 a.m. Friday. Hamblin had picked up 50,000 pounds of potatoes in Michigan on Thursday for delivery to the Frito-Lay plant in Charlotte – not far from the South Carolina line, off I-77 Exit 1.
He didn’t make it. After fighting off sleep for half an hour, he crashed near Exit 9.
“I dozed off for a second and woke up just in time to see the cement barrier in front of my truck,” Hamblin said.
The impact sent the engine flying out of his overturned truck. There was a fire. I-77 was blocked for much of the day while cleanup crews used front-end loaders to scoop up the fuel-stained potatoes.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/traffic/road-worrier-blog/article76616082.html
“Every exit, I was looking and hoping to find a sign that said ‘Rest Area,’” Hamblin, 53, of Hyrum, Utah, said Monday.
He was afraid to sleep on the shoulder of an exit ramp. He couldn’t afford a parking ticket.
It was just before 2 a.m. Friday. Hamblin had picked up 50,000 pounds of potatoes in Michigan on Thursday for delivery to the Frito-Lay plant in Charlotte – not far from the South Carolina line, off I-77 Exit 1.
He didn’t make it. After fighting off sleep for half an hour, he crashed near Exit 9.
“I dozed off for a second and woke up just in time to see the cement barrier in front of my truck,” Hamblin said.
The impact sent the engine flying out of his overturned truck. There was a fire. I-77 was blocked for much of the day while cleanup crews used front-end loaders to scoop up the fuel-stained potatoes.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/traffic/road-worrier-blog/article76616082.html
