HARMAN, WV (LOOTPRESS) – A tractor trailer turned over on US Rt 33 East on Monday between Middle and Rich Mountains.
According to reports from the Randolph County Sheriff’s Department, Sheriff Rob Elbon received a call at around 12:38pm Monday regarding a tractor trailer which had overturned near Harman.
Harman Fire Department and Randolph County EMS responded as well, along with Lt. Bryan Talkington and Deputy Tyler Knotts who assisted on the scene.
Sheriff Elbon reports observing a 2004 Kenworth road tractor lying on its passenger side once on the scene.
The truck and trailer were observed to have been off the surface of the roadway, with the tractor still attached to an empty log trailer which was over the embankment near a private fence line.
The driver, Kenneth Neil Paugh Jr., was located by the crash site and discovered to be uninjured following the incident.
Paugh advised that he had been driving westbound from Harman when he started downhill on the Elkins side of Rich Mountain. He revealed that, at this point, a vehicle traveling toward Harman coming up the hill pulled out to pass another vehicle.
Paugh advised that he moved off the roadway as far as possible in order to avoid a head-on collision with the vehicle. The tractor was kept on the shoulder for nearly 500 feet before the trailer struck a telephone pole, causing the tractor to flip onto its side.
The passing vehicle apparently did not stop at the scene, and no citations were issued as no registration or identifiers were available.