Update: I-30 Open Again After Truck, Trailer Plunge off Bridge onto Embankment
By: KARK 4 News
Updated: February 8, 2013
The Arkansas State Police have released the following summary of a multi-vehicle accident that backed up traffic on Interstate 30 Friday afternoon:
The eastbound lanes of Interstate 30 west of Malvern closed to traffic earlier this afternoon was re-opened shortly before 6 Friday evening.
Traffic through most of the afternoon had been detoured off the Interstate onto U.S. Highway 67 while medical rescue personnel and heavy equipment recovery workers were at a traffic crash (91 mile marker) reported about 2:00 p.m. between Malvern and Social Hill.
William Almond of Hot Springs, driver of a large pickup truck pulling a trailer loaded with construction equipment, reportedly merged into the eastbound traffic after stopping along the highway shoulder.
As Almond entered the traffic lane, the rear of the trailer being pulled by his truck was struck by a tractor-trailer truck driven by Ronnie Watson of Sherman, Texas.
The impact from the collision caused Almond's truck and trailer to be pushed along the guardrail of an overpass, then off the roadway, dropping approximately 40 feet onto an embankment below the bridge.
Almond was pinned in the wreckage. He was eventually freed from the crash and airlifted to a Little Rock hospital.
At this hour Almond's condition is unknown.
The eastbound lanes of Interstate 30 west of Malvern closed to traffic earlier this afternoon was re-opened shortly before 6 Friday evening.
Traffic through most of the afternoon had been detoured off the Interstate onto U.S. Highway 67 while medical rescue personnel and heavy equipment recovery workers were at a traffic crash (91 mile marker) reported about 2:00 p.m. between Malvern and Social Hill.
William Almond of Hot Springs, driver of a large pickup truck pulling a trailer loaded with construction equipment, reportedly merged into the eastbound traffic after stopping along the highway shoulder.
As Almond entered the traffic lane, the rear of the trailer being pulled by his truck was struck by a tractor-trailer truck driven by Ronnie Watson of Sherman, Texas.
The impact from the collision caused Almond's truck and trailer to be pushed along the guardrail of an overpass, then off the roadway, dropping approximately 40 feet onto an embankment below the bridge.
Almond was pinned in the wreckage. He was eventually freed from the crash and airlifted to a Little Rock hospital.
At this hour Almond's condition is unknown.
