Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Apples fill median after early morning accident

No one was injured when a tractor-trailer rolled over into the median of I-30 early Friday morning near the 52 mile marker.

According to Arkansas State Police Trooper Darrin Neal, the truck, owned by WW Transport of Advanced, Missori, was traveling west on the interstate when it left the roadway around 4 a.m. Neal said the driver told him that he was forced off of the road by another truck, but the trooper was unable to verify this and no vehicle matching the description given by the driver was located.

There was no impact with another vehicle, Neal said.

When the truck, driven by Anthony Taylor, 39, of Huntington, Tenn., left the roadway, Neal said the driver attempted to correct the vehicle back onto the roadway, but the trucks load shifted causing the truck to overturn.

The trucks contents which included apple products ranging from canned apples to apple juice was strewn across the highway, in the south ditch and filled the median. Employees of M&M Towing in Prescott were called to the scene later Friday morning to remove the debris and clear two large dump truck loads of apple product from location.

The Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services was on hand to supervise the removal of the contaminated apple products from the highway. Once all of it was loaded, health department officials escorted the trucks to a landfill in Howard County.

Although the trucks trailer was torn almost completely apart, the driver was not seriously injured, Neal said. He was transported by the Nevada County Ambulance Service to Baptist Medial Center - Arkadelphia where he was treated and released.