HAYWOOD COUNTY, N.C. — A North Carolina state trooper and three others were injured on Thursday night after a tractor-trailer struck a line of vehicles that were stopped along Interstate 40.
According to the North Carolina State Highway Patrol the wreck happened just before 11:30 p.m. near mile marker 20.
Authorities said an NCDOT Incident Management Assistance Patrol Program (IMAP) vehicle was stopped in the shoulder behind a trooper, responding to a separate wreck, when a tractor-trailer in the right lane struck the IMAP truck then the trooper vehicle.
The collision pushed the trooper’s vehicle into the vehicles involved in the previous wreck, Hipp said.
All involved were taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and raised in East Texas, John Worthen returned to his home state to attend college in 1998 and decided to make his life in The Natural State. Worthen is a 20-year veteran of the journalism industry and has covered just about every topic there is. He has a passion for writing and telling stories. He has worked as a beat reporter and bureau chief for a statewide newspaper and as managing editor of a regional newspaper in Arkansas. Additionally, Worthen has been a prolific freelance journalist for two decades, and has been published in several travel magazines and on travel websites.