May 15, 2002 By Steve Ferris 2 min read

ROSTRAVER TWP. – At first, it looked like a tractor-trailer truck pulling tandem trailers had wrecked around noon Tuesday on westbound Interstate 70 at the Route 51 underpass. A closer look revealed that one tractor-trailer rear-ended another rig, with the engine and cab of the second truck lodged inside the box trailer of the truck in front.

State police said Lonnie Cook of Glenn White, W.Va., was merging onto I-70 from northbound Route 51 when the load in his tractor-trailer shifted, causing the truck to turn onto its side and into the path of a westbound tractor-trailer driven by Kim Barnett of Tulsa, Okla.

While Cook suffered only a minor injury, Barnett was flown to Pittsburgh’s Mercy Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition Tuesday evening.

Barnett had been delivering sporting goods to Dick’s Sporting Goods stores in the area, while Cook was hauling a load of bailing wire, according to Rostraver Township firefighters.

After they cut open the trailer on Cook’s truck to reach the cab of Barnett’s truck and free the driver, firefighters used a thermal-imaging camera to search for a passenger in the wreckage, but found none.

Volunteer firefighters from the Rostraver Central and Rostraver 1 departments also directed traffic – one westbound lane and one eastbound lane – while a state police accident reconstruction team from the Uniontown barracks studied the wreck site.

The left eastbound lane was blocked by an air deflector that was knocked off the roof of the second truck cab, and the wreck occupied the left westbound lane.

Off and on rainstorms, some with lightning, combined with a constant flow of traffic to make it more difficult for firefighters and police as they worked to determine how the accident occurred and clear the wreckage from the busy highway.

State Department of Transportation workers also were at the scene.