Box truck crash closes eastbound lanes of Route 40 near summit
The eastbound lanes of Route 40 were closed for several hours Thursday morning after a large box truck crashed into the cement median near Hopwood, causing its fuel to spill onto the highway.
The vehicle crashed into the barrier near the watering trough shortly after 5 a.m., Fayette County Emergency Management spokeswoman Susan Griffith said.
Leaking fuel covered the roadway, forcing crews to shut down the eastbound lanes for more than four hours as they cleaned up the road surface before reopening the highway shortly after 9 a.m., state Department of Transportation spokeswoman Melissa Maczko said. Traffic on the westbound lanes was slowed during the cleanup, but that direction remained open to traffic the entire time.
The name of the driver, who was not injured in the crash, was not immediately released. Witnesses who called emergency responders said the box truck was perched atop the cement barrier, Griffith said.
State police Trooper Kalee Barnhart said the vehicle was traveling west down the mountain when it crashed. No other vehicles were involved in the accident, Barnhart said.
Volunteer firefighters from Hopwood and Farmington assisted at the scene.
It’s the second time this week that Route 40 in southeastern Fayette County has been closed due to a crash. On Tuesday afternoon, a passenger vehicle crossed the centerline and crashed into a tractor-trailer near Farmington, killing all five people in the car, including an infant.
Fayette County Coroner Bob Baker released the names of the five victims Wednesday night, all of whom were from the Delaware, Ohio area near Columbus. The driver of the car, 55-year-old Harold Nibert, died along with passengers Bradley Thivener, 47, Krystal May, 36, Amanda Dawson, 33, and her 7-month-old son, Kullen Dawson.
The names of the tractor-trailer driver or the occupants of a second passenger vehicle involved in the crash have not been released.