Truck accident near KY-Tenn. border closes I-75 Friday

A single vehicle accident left the southbound lanes of Interstate 75 near the Tennessee-Kentucky border blocked for hours as crews worked to clean up fuel that had leaked from the truck as a result of the accident.

According to a press release from the Tennessee Highway Patrol, at around 3:30 a.m. Friday morning a tractor trailer driven by 57-year-old Richard Dawkins, of Stanley, NC, was traveling northbound when struck the inside wall and veered into the southbound lanes near the 158 mile-point.

Dawkins was taken to St. Mary’s Hospital in Jellico where he was treated for what the THP called “non-life threatening head injuries.”

The impact of the wreck apparently caused the truck’s fuel tanks to rip open, spilling diesel fuel onto the roadway. The release said that the cleanup took hours to complete and that Dawkins was hauling over the counter medications.