According to Nebraska State Patrol officers, an Ohio resident is in a local hospital with serious injuries after he flipped his truck over near the city of Grand Island, Nebraska.
Around 1:45 a.m. on October 11, the driver was heading eastbound on Interstate 80. Around 4 miles east of the highway’s Aurora Interchange, the driver of the semi apparently lost control of his rig. The truck drifted into the median, hitting the guard rail. The truck then pushed all the way into the westbound lanes, driving entirely across opposite-bound traffic before it finally flipped over, ending up in the north-side ditch of the highway.
Thankfully, no one was hurt except for the 54-year-old driver of the truck. The driver currently remains unidentified. The injured man was first taken to Saint Francis Hospital in Grand Island before being transferred to another hospital in nearby Lincoln.
There are no other details at this time. Still, the incident serves as another illustration of how potentially serious a semi truck accident can be.
This truck went entirely from the eastbound lanes across all of the westbound lanes. To get there, it went over the median, stopping to push through an entire guard rail on the way. Semi trucks are several orders of magnitude larger than other vehicles, and common roadway safety items like most guard rails aren’t always enough to restrain them if they go out of control.
It is likely that the early hour of day prevented anyone else from being hurt, thanks to relatively few drivers being on the road. But the semi crossed multiple lanes of traffic and overturned. That no one else was hurt is surprising, and the fact that the truck didn’t catch fire is also a relief.
Drivers are advised to always exercise caution when driving around semi trucks and similar large vehicles.
