Rain sends cars, trucks, tractor-trailers skidding

Credit: By Britt Combs

Marion police officers and firefighters director motorists around the downed lines.

By Richelle Bailey
Published: December 02, 2009

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The rain wreaked havoc for motorists Wednesday, sending a tractor-trailer barreling into the Interstate 40 guardrail and tying up eastbound traffic; sending a vehicle careening head-on into an empty school bus; and sending power lines toppling to the ground after a pickup hit a guy wire, authorities say.
The tractor-trailer wreck set off a flurry of activity around 9 a.m., when Tony Green, 44, of Raleigh was driving the 1999 International N.C. Department of Transportation rig east near the Sugar Hill Road exit.
Trooper J.P. Contas of the N.C. Highway Patrol said Green lost control of the transfer, ran off the right side off the pavement and struck the guardrail, overcorrected, ran off the left side of the road and struck the median guardrail. The truck then came to a stop blocking both eastbound lanes of I-40.
Contas added that James Egner, 41, of Charlottesville, Va. was driving a 2006 Chrysler minivan east, when he came upon the sprawled tractor-trailer and struck it.
Both Green and Egner were taken to The McDowell Hospital for treatment of minor injuries, according to the trooper.
He added that traffic was backed up about 40 minutes and was rerouted onto Sugar Hill Road for about 10 minutes before the wreckage was cleared.
The trooper charged Green with exceeding a safe speed.
Just as traffic began flowing smoothly, around 10:30 a.m., Jared Dylan Hollifield, 18, of Shadow Drive in Marion was attempting to maneuver his 1998 Toyota onto I-40 at the N.C. 226 South on ramp, when he lost control of the vehicle, spun around and hit a school bus head-on, according to Trooper J.E. Dowdle of the N.C. Highway Patrol.
The 2009 Thomas school bus, driven by William Jake Serer, 76, of Payette, Idaho, was empty. It was a brand new bus in transport.
No one was injured in the crash.
Dowdle charged Hollifield with exceeding a safe speed.
Traffic was again detoured around 1:30 p.m., but this time on the five lane.
Officer R.J. Hink of the Marion Police Department said Michael Waycaster, 33, of U.S. 221 North was backing up his 2002 Ford pickup truck in the McDaniel Insurance parking lot, when he hit a guy wire, breaking the top end of a power pole and sending the lines across all five lanes.
Northbound traffic was rerouted onto Garden Creek Road, and southbound traffic took a quick detour through the Lady Marian Plaza parking lot.
Hink said at approximately 2:30 p.m. that cleanup crews expected to be on the scene until at least 4 p.m.
The officer added that the downed lines only cut power to ATM machines