The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet advised motorists traveling north on I-75 in Laurel County late Thursday morning to be prepared for delays near the weigh station due to accident reconstruction and pavement repairs stemming from a fiery fatal crash Wednesday afternoon.
A tractor trailer driver was killed and another tractor trailer driver was injured due to a chain reaction crash, which occurred at approximately 1 p.m. Wednesday near the 33-mile marker.
Laurel-Whitley Emergency Management Director Jerry Rains said three semi-trucks and a passenger van were involved in the wreck on the northbound side near the weigh station.
“It appears that trucks were lining up to go into the scales and somehow a semi coming from the rear may not have realized their speed. I don’t know if it was driver inattention or what, but a semi struck the end of another semi and caused a chain reaction,” Rains said. “Two of the semis burst into flames.”
A third semi, which was loaded with steel rebar, was struck as the result of the chain reaction, but did not catch fire or sustain damages from the blaze. It escaped relatively unscathed.
Rains said an approximately 1,320 pound spool of wire came off one of the burning tractor trailers. The passenger van struck the spool of wire, which incapacitated the vehicle.
The driver of the tractor trailer, which had spools of wire on it and caught fire, was killed in the crash.
A Kroger tractor trailer loaded with groceries also caught fire. Its driver was transported to the hospital with burns, Rains said.
Rains said when he left the crash scene at approximately 10 p.m. Wednesday, investigators were not sure about the trucking company or the identity of the deceased driver because everything in the truck had burnt.
The crash had both southbound and northbound lanes closed for approximately two hours Wednesday. The southbound lanes reopened shortly before 2 p.m.
At approximately 8:24 p.m., the far left lane of northbound I-75 reopened followed by the middle lane at approximately 10:34 p.m. Wednesday, but the far right lane remained closed, according to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.
(Editor’s Note: Photos courtesy of Laurel-Whitley County Emergency Management.)
