A truck driver was critically injured Tuesday morning on Interstate 70 when he drove a tractor-trailer into the rear of an overturned trailer, burying the entire cab inside the rear section, at the Route 51 interchange in Rostraver Township.
Kim Barnett, 48, of Tulsa, Okla., was extricated by firefighters and emergency personnel, Michael Stangroom, director of Rostraver-West Newton EMS, said at the scene.
Barnett was flown from the scene by emergency medical helicopter to Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh, Uptown, where he was listed in critical condition last night with extensive head and facial injuries. He was hauling sporting goods.
The other driver, Lonnie Cook of Glen White, W.Va., sustained minor injuries and was transported by ambulance to Monongahela Valley Hospital in Carroll Township, Washington County. Cook was treated for the injuries and released.
Traffic was delayed in both directions for a few hours. Traffic in the eastbound lanes was backed up to the Arnold City exit, and traffic in the westbound lanes was backed up three miles to the Smithton exit. Only one lane of traffic was open in either direction. By 5 p.m., traffic was flowing through the accident scene.
Late yesterday morning, Cook's tractor-trailer turned on its side as he steered into a westbound lane of Interstate 70 from Route 51 north. The trailer overturned on the driver side in the left, westbound lane. State police at Belle Vernon said Barnett failed to stop, crashing through the rear of the trailer. The accident was reported at about 11:45 a.m.
Firefighters and EMS personnel who arrived at the scene before fire trucks used their hands to peel back torn metal from the overturned trailer's roof and pull the driver out of the crushed cab inside, according to Richard Taylor, chief of Rostraver Central Fire Department.
Stangroom said Barnett was in and out of consciousness after being pulled from the truck. Cook got out himself, Stangroom said. He apparently climbed through an open window in the sleeper section of the cab, according to Stangroom.
State police Cpl. Donald Giddens said firefighters used heat and sound detectors to determine whether anyone else was trapped inside the overturned trailer.
Giddens said that a state police accident reconstruction team and a forensics unit were investigating the accident.
