SELMA, N.C. — A tractor-trailer driver is dead after a fiery crash on Interstate 95 in Selma, North Carolina, on Monday morning.
WRAL of Raleigh, North Carolina, reports that the crash happened around 9:45 a.m. when Jason Hedgepeth went off the road’s northbound lanes, into a ditch and hit several trees. The truck then burst into flames. The accident happened near mile marker 98, adjacent to a rest area and just north of Pine Level Selma Road.
WRAL reports that witness said they saw the truck swerve for several hundred yards before it went off the highway and crashed.
“The flames were higher than the treetops over here,” said Rob Guertsen, who overheard the wreck at a nearby resort. “The impact of the tree with the truck was so loud it sounded like a bomb.”
“Sky 5 footage captured the vehicle on its side as the inside was charred and some of the exterior was melted,” WRAL reported. “The truck was carrying tomatoes, which were spilled out on the side of the road along with hundreds of boxes and pallets.”
Hedgepeth was driving a load from Immokalee, Florida, to the Bronx, New York. Hedgepeth was driving for Pak Auto Transporters, according to the State Highway Patrol. It is unknown what caused him to lose control of the semi.
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