WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and sports | Log truck driver flips rig closing GA Highway 30
Member Center:
By Michelle Paynter - bio | email
PORT WENTWORTH, GA (WTOC) - A log truck wreck shut down traffic on a busy road for four hours today and sent two people to the hospital.
It happened at 11am on Tuesday morning on Georgia Highway 30 in Port Wentworth at the intersection of Meinhard Road.
Dozens of logs littered the roadway. The truck hauling them was laying on its side, it almost ended up in the ditch.
But amazingly, driver Roy Warthen came out without a scratch. "I'm thanking God for letting me come out alive."
Warthen was bringing the logs to Weyerhauser in Port Wentworth when he saw a white van pull out in front of him. "I seen the lady coming up to the stop sign and I thought she was going to stop, she didn't, she kept coming," he said.
Warthen said the only thing he could do was swerve to try to avoid her. She still ended up hitting him. He lost control and flipped his truck, logs went everywhere.
But Warthen was going nowhere. He was trapped in his cab for several minutes. "I was praying, I really was praying that I come out alive," he said.
Once Warthen got out of the truck he said he rushed to check on the people in the van, but they were already gone.
Port Wentworth Fire chief Greg Long said the woman driving the van grabbed her child and ran to a nearby construction site to get help. No word on their conditions.
Warthen says he has been driving log trucks in the area for almost 25 years now, never experiencing anything like this before, and hopes he never does again.
The Highway 30 and Meinhard Road intersection where this wreck happened, is getting busier by the day. a lot of new homes are being built there.
Meinhard Road is basically a cut through. It joins US Highway 21 east of I-95 with Highway 30.
There is a stop sign, but Long said that's not enough.
"It's kind of a dangerous intersection because you have a connecting road in the middle of a curve on a state road and visibility has always been an issue," said Long. "It's not well lighted at night and there aren't really a lot of warning signs in place."
"As traffic increases on this side of town I would anticipate more and more injury accidents at this location," he said.
©2009 WTOC. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
