INSTITUTE, W.Va. — Investigators with the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department say a tractor-trailer driver may have suffered a medical episode that caused him to lose control of his truck Monday night on Interstate 64 in Kanawha County.
The wreck claimed the truck driver’s life.
Deputies said the truck was heading east between Institute and Cross Lanes and just before 9:30 p.m. when the truck veered into the lane of a passenger vehicle and pinned the vehicle against the median highway. As the two vehicles separated, the car caught on fire while the truck veered right, went through a guardrail and overturned.
The truck driver died at the scene. The driver of the car survived the crash and is hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, deputies said.
“Investigators are conducting a thorough review of the incident and have not ruled out the possibility that the truck driver suffered a medical problem before or during the crash,” a news release from the sheriff’s department said.
The names of those involved haven’t been released.
The truck was carrying a hazardous material that has to be offloaded. Deputies said the public was not in any danger.
I-64 eastbound traffic continues to be diverted around the scene of the crash.
Photo courtesy WCHS-TV