UPDATED: Crash slows I-81 traffic

Traffic was backed up for at least six hours and eight miles Thursday afternoon after a pickup truck hauling a large camper jackknifed and blocked both lanes of northbound Interstate 81.

The delay could have been much worse, said Pat Lower, senior trooper with the Virginia State Police, if the first vehicle after the accident had not been a heavy-duty wrecker truck.

“When I got there I told him to dump the truck and start with the camper,” Lower said. “That doesn’t happen every day that the first vehicle behind the blockage [is a wrecker.] If it wasn’t for that, the interstate would be blocked a lot longer.”

The accident happened around 11:40 a.m., Lower said, and residual traffic backup was still evident during the 5 p.m. rush hour and later.

Other law enforcement agencies reported dealing with extra traffic both in the city of Bristol and on Lee Highway, which runs parallel to 81. But a dispatcher with the Washington County, Va., Sheriff’s Office said they hadn’t worked any wrecks on Lee Highway on Thursday afternoon because of the extra traffic.

The back-up began when Walter Barrett was almost home.

The Saltville, Va., resident had been in Texas, where he had been working and living in his trailer, Lower said. But as he got to the Halls Bottom Road Bridge, around mile marker 11, a tractor-trailer attempted to pass him.

“A tractor-trailer pushes a lot of wind, and so does that pickup truck,” Lower said. “Apparently when the tractor-trailer started to pass, the airflow between [the two vehicles] was too great for the camper. It started to sway. It struck the side of the tractor-trailer, bounced to the shoulder. It struck the guardrail.”

Then, he said, it hit the tractor-trailer again, and then the pickup truck jackknifed and hit the other guardrail on the right side of the rode and spun around.

The tractor-trailer driver stopped his rig at that point, but he and his truck were fine.

The camper, however, was blocking both lanes of the interstate, Lower said.

 “It was pretty much the same width” as the road, he said. “It completely blocked the whole interstate.”

Barrett suffered bruises and was taken to Bristol Regional Medical Center to be checked.

He was charged with reckless driving and failure to maintain control, Lower said.

“Even though it’s understandable, still it’s the driver’s responsibility not to let it go catawampus like that,” he said. “I’m guessing it was maybe 35 [feet long]. It was big, it blocked everything. I haven’t seen anything like that in a while.”

Lower said he talked with representatives from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles and they didn’t find a law against pickup trucks pulling large trailers, otherwise he might have charged Barrett with that as well.

“Tell people to be careful,” he said. “No matter what region you lose control of your vehicle, it’s almost always your fault.”

arobinson@bristolnews.com
(276) 645-2531

EARLIER THURSDAY

A crash on Interstate 81 near Bristol, Va., backed up traffic for about six miles earlier this afternoon.

Traffic is moving again, as authorities work to clear the single-vehicle accident near Mile Marker 11, according to Herald Courier photograher Andre Teague. A pickup truck and pullalong camper crashed, blocking both northbound lanes for a time.

The driver of the truck received minor injuries and was treated at Bristol Regional Medical Center, Virginia State Police Trooper Lower said.

Traffic diverted onto Lee Highway caused backups and at least one crash, Lower said.

The Herald Courier will have a full report in Friday's newspaper.

Readers who were stuck in traffic are invited to share their stories.