INDIANA Truck driver killed at icy U.S. 30 rest stop. rain turned to freezing rain AND ICE, making area
roads extremely slippery.
Linda Martz, lmartz@gannett.com 2:19 p.m. EST January 3,
2015
MANSFIELD – A 51-year-old Indiana truck driver whose
truck had just been hit by one pickup on icy pavement at the U.S. 30 rest stop
east of Mansfield was killed after a second pickup slid into him, around 7:30
a.m. Saturday.
It was one of several accidents handled by the Mansfield
post of the Ohio Highway Patrol after 6:51 a.m., when rain turned to freezing
rain, making area roads extremely slippery.
Craig Potter of Columbia City, Ind., who was driving for
Wel Companies Inc. of Wisconsin, was pronounced dead while enroute to a
hospital in a Mifflin Fire Department EMS ambulance, Trooper Matt Stoffer said.
The accident occurred as part of a chain reaction that
began when a 2005 Chevy Silvarado driven by Robert McCready II, 56, of
Bellville, lost control on icy pavement at the eastbound U.S. 30 rest stop,
sliding into the left side of the semi-truck Potter was driving. The Chevy came
to rest facing southwest toward the trailer side of the semi truck, Stoffer
said.
McCready, who was coming to work at the rest stop, went
into the rest area building to report the accident, after checking that Potter
was OK. The truck driver was still in his vehicle when McCready went inside.
About three minutes later, a 2012 Ford 5250 pickup driven
by Jerry Hissong, 53, of Caledonia, approached the rest stop, hitting Potter,
who had exited his semi and was standing near the door. The pickup also slammed
into the trailer and the first pickup truck, Stoffer said.
Stoffer said the crash was not the first reported that
morning, but ice on the highways, which ODOT had been treating, “was spotty,”
while the rest stop area was a glaze of ice on both road pavement and
sidewalks.
“The entire rest area was covered with ice,” he said.
“ODOT probably didn’t hit the rest area yet.”
A highway patrol reconstructionist’s preliminary report
from checking the electrical system on the Ford pickup was that it was going
around 26 miles per hour about 5 seconds prior to the crash, and that the
vehicle apparently headed in a straight line, with the driver unable to veer
from that path, Stoffer said. The vehicle “pretty much just came straight in.
He was probably driving too fast and couldn’t stop,” he said.
No charges had been filed as of early Saturday
afternoon, and the accident was still under investigation.
None of the other accidents handled by the Mansfield
post Saturday morning involved serious injuries, according to the state
trooper.
Stoffer said injury accidents or fatalities are more
likely during freezing rain conditions than in heavy snows. While troopers
handle a lot of calls of cars off the road during snowstorms, there generally
are no injuries, he added.
The trooper said he always cautions drivers when giving
talks to take it easy when freezing rain conditions are possible. “I just
always tell drivers you have just got to watch the temperatures. Any time there
is moisture on the road and it’s at or below freezing, you’ve got to assume the
roads have some ice on them,” he said.
The trooper said he also reminds drivers to “just coast”
when they’re crossing possibly icy bridges. “Don’t hit your brakes or
accelerate,” which can cause vehicles to spin, he said.
