Tractor-Trailer Crashes Destroying Nearly 1,000 Feet Of Guardrail

DERRY, NH — New Hampshire State Police and Derry and Windham firefighters responded to a report of a tractor-trailer accident on I-93 north Sunday.

A tractor-trailer went off the road, striking a guardrail at Mile Marker 9.6, located in Derry and just north of the Windham town line, just before 8 a.m.

The vehicle took out nearly 1,000 feet of guardrail and came to a stop just before the vehicle could have potentially rolled over in a small marsh in the median of the highway.

Fire crews worked to stop a fuel tank from leaking while medics evaluated the driver, who was from North Carolina. The driver refused medical transport and remained at the scene while state police investigated. NH Department of Transportation workers blocked the left travel and breakdown lanes while debris was cleaned up in the roadway.

Woody’s Towing used heavy equipment to remove the tractor-trailer cab from the guardrail and then mitigated additional fluids leaking from the cab.

A NH DOT worker who said he has been on the job for nearly twenty years said he had never seen that amount of damage done to a guardrail.

Initial information is the driver appears to have fallen asleep while driving, state police Troop G is handling the investigation of the accident. The truck was loaded with over 30,000 pounds of cheese, and the trailer was registered out of Maine.

The left lane of travel was closed for about three hours, and NH DOT has placed orange barrels temporarily to replace where the guardrail was previously.

©Jeffrey Hastings www.frameofmindphoto.com/news