Driver loses leg on roadside after crash
Emergency surgery team amputates after truck wrecks on I-70.
A man had his leg amputated by an emergency surgery team on the side of the road after his semi-truck crashed while driving on Interstate 70.
The driver, who was not named, was flown by MedFlight to a local hospital following the Saturday evening crash.
State police said the semi-truck driver crashed into a retaining wall off the Airport Access Road ramp onto I-70.
He was impaled by a piece of metal and an emergency surgical team was called to the scene when fire crews determined they wouldn’t be able to extract him from the cab, Ohio State Highway Patrol Sgt. Frank Simmons Jr. confirmed.
As of Saturday evening he was in stable condition and Simmons said at the time that he was not believed to be in danger of losing his life.
According to Simmons, both the driver’s speed and the rain led to the accident. Police plan to cite the driver with a misdemeanor charge of failure to control.
“The roadway was still wet and he was going way too fast for the curve,” Simmons said. “The road conditions and curvature of that
ramp were too much for that vehicle.”
Simmons said the ful- ly-loaded tractor trailer trav- eled about 100 feet off the side of the right side of the road.
Travelers need to slow down while merging onto highways, especially when the roads are wet, Simmons said.
He said accidents like this happen frequently in the area where I-70 and I-75 intersect.
“With the curvatures of these roadways it happens all the time,” he said.