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Monday wreck snarls traffic
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A tractor trailer drifted off the shoulder of U.S. 74 around 1:25 p.m. Monday (June 26) and tied up traffic for about four hours. According to N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper Steve Allred, the driver, 78-year-old Luther Harness of Carnesville, Ga., was heading east on U.S. 74 between the two Sylva exits when he drifted off the shoulder and struck a concrete barrier. The impact caused the cab to separate from the trailer and spilled most of the truck’s diesel fuel. “It was a violent impact,” Allred said. “All that was really left of the tractor was the motor and the frame.” Cleanup crews spent more than four hours cleaning up the spilled fuel, and both eastbound lanes were closed until about 6 p.m., the trooper said. Harness, who remained inside the cab during the crash, was taken to Mission Hospitals in Asheville, where he was in stable condition Tuesday after suffering cuts and broken bones in the accident, Allred said. Harness is expected to be charged with exceeding a safe speed, Allred said. Sylva Police officers, assisted by the Jackson County Rescue Squad and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, were kept busy all afternoon directing the highway traffic, which was rerouted down Grindstaff Cove Road and Main Street to Business 23 and back to U.S. 74 past Harris Regional Hospital, said Sylva Assistant Chief Tammy Hooper. “We had some trouble at first on Main Street until we got an officer at the east end,” Hooper said. – Herald photo by Nick Breedlove |
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