Tractor-trailer accident slows traffic on I-77

By: Jim Mcnally | Statesville Record & Landmark
Published: January 11, 2010

The one-vehicle accident, which occurred approximately a half-mile south of the Exit 49 exchange, took place at about 7 p.m. Sunday when Orville Berg Jr. of Salem, W.V., apparently lost control of the 2009 Freightliner truck he was driving and ran it into and then over the guard rail.
Berg, 32, is employed by Crete Carriers out of Nebraska. He was driving a load of dry good for the Kellogg Company from Ohio to South Carolina when the accident happened.
"He told me he was driving down the road near the bridge when, he said, his vehicle just 'did it's own thing,'" said North Carolina State Trooper J.S. Martin, who is investigating the incident.
Martin said it could have been a burst of wind that caused Berg to loose control but said that was only speculation.
"There is no way to prove a mechanical failure," Martin said.
And for that reason, the trooper did not issue Berg a ticket.
"I can't, in good conscience, charge the man," Martin said. "He said it was something mechanical and it could have happened exactly the way he said. I'm not 100 percent sure but I can't charge him that."
Martin said there was no evidence of alcohol or drug use and that all of Berg's driving logs were in order.
"So, he was where he was supposed to be," Martin said. "So there is no reason to doubt him."
Besides, Martin added, Berg is going to have enough things to worry about.
For example, the guard rail destroyed in the accident is valued at about $50,000, according to North Carolina Department of Transportation officials.
Martin said Berg sustained minor cuts and bruises in the accident. No one else was injured.

Tractor-trailer accident slows traffic on I-77

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