ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 4, 1995 TAG: 9512040100
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHLEEN WILSON AND MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITERS
note: above
GOOD SAMARITANS, rescue teams and luck saved the lives of two truckers Sunday.
David Morris lay bleeding in a puddle of diesel fuel near an overpass on Interstate 81 Sunday as flames crawled toward him.
``Somebody help me!'' Barbara Stilling screamed as she and her husband, Ed, tried to pull the 300-pound truck driver out of the fuel in the seconds before the fire from his wrecked tractor-trailer would reach him.
Other motorists who had abandoned their cars along Interstate 581 below the overpass scrambled up a steep embankment already slick with diesel fuel. A half-dozen people braved the flames to help drag Morris to safety.
Police and rescue workers said it was amazing that Morris and his driving partner, who was behind the wheel, survived the dramatic crash.
"It's miraculous," State Trooper T.A. Steele said. The wreck "basically demolished the cab. The top came off, and what didn't come off burned."
The truck came dangerously close to sliding off the overpass and plummeting 60 feet onto I-581. Morris, who was thrown a dozen feet from the cab into some brush along the highway, was fortunate motorists were able to get him before the flames did. Roanoke Memorial Hospital's LifeGuard 10 helicopter hovered and made one aborted landing before risking a landing directly on the four-lane overpass, with flames on one side and a fleet of ambulances on the other.
Morris, 53, of Yadkin, N.C., was in very serious condition Sunday night. The driver, Luke Sain, 45, of Hickory, N.C., walked away from the accident in shock. He was treated at the hospital and released.
The truckers were heading north on I-81 about 2 p.m. Sunday, hauling a cargo of electrical equipment from a Leviton Manufacturing plant in Morganton, N.C., to Montreal. Morris told rescuers that he had just crawled into the sleeping compartment when the tractor-trailer skidded out of control.
Steele said Sain had just passed a car and was moving back into the right lane as the truck came to the bridge. "I think he probably just got over farther than he thought" and the truck's rear wheels hit a concrete slab that juts out from the guardrail, the trooper said.
Barbara and Ed Stilling, who were heading home to Glen Burnie, Md., were right behind the truck as it approached the bridge. They saw the rear wheel slam into the guardrail with such force the tire popped off.
The truck careered sideways, the cab smashed the left guardrail, then the whole tractor-trailer turned over and slid 400 feet - the length of the bridge - sending sparks flying. If the truck had gone a bit more to the right or left, Steele said, the cab might have fallen onto motorists traveling below on I-581.
One fuel tank burst, spraying diesel fuel all over. Motorists on I-81 and I-581 slammed on their brakes - but managed to avoid colliding. The Stillings were the first to reach the truck. Barbara Stilling began pleading for help. "He was just too big. I needed help. I couldn't do it alone," she said. She knew "he would burn up" if they didn't move him quickly.
Six rescuers pulled Morris as gingerly as possible out of danger and covered him up to prevent him from going into shock. Barbara Stilling said a leg bone had ripped through Morris' skin. Steele said Morris' hip joint was shattered.
A column of fire and black smoke rose. Explosions filled the air as tires on the 18-wheeler burst. A bottle of ketchup, a box of Ritz crackers, a leather bomber jacket and Morris' wallet lay on I-81.
Sain escaped with bruises and cuts. Witnesses were astonished he was able to walk away. "I don't know how he did it," said Joel Hodgedon of Shawsville, who joined in the rescue.
LifeGuard 10 circled several times before landing on a patch of grass off the highway, then took off again and came down directly on the overpass. "The worst part was that there was no place to land LifeGuard 10," Hollins rescue Capt. Joyce Harper said.
After the helicopter whisked Morris away, firefighters from several area crews continued to battle the intense diesel fire. They had to haul in water because there were no hydrants.
The truck burned for 3 1/2 hours before firefighters could put the fire out. "It was pretty bad - about as bad as it gets," Roanoke County Firefighter Jeff Becker said.
Traffic was already backed up for two miles on I-81 when Steele arrived on the scene. By 4:30 p.m., it was backed up at least five miles, he said.
State police charged Sain with reckless driving. Steele said Sain probably wasn't speeding, and fatigue didn't appear to be a factor. The truckers had been on the road for four hours and had taken an hour-long break not long before the crash.
It took three large wreckers to pull the skeleton of the truck off the highway.
"There wasn't much left to pull out after the fire," State Police Sgt. Vern Jones said. "Truck, trailer, road - totaled."
The interstate was reopened to traffic at 11:38 p.m., said State Police dispatcher Angel Graham.
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. & 2. ERIC BRADY/Staff Roanoke Memorial Hospital'sby CNBLifeGuard 10 helicopter airlifted one of the victims after risking a
landing on the Interstate 81 overpass between the burning truck and
the ambulances. Firefighters from several localities labored for 3
1/2 hours before getting the fire out. Miraculously, neither
trucker was killed, though one was hospitalized. color
3. ERIC BRADY/Staff With the truck still burning in the background,
rescue workers attend to a victim.