crash

There was a huge inferno in the early hours of Friday morning in a cash toll lane in the busiest toll plaza on the Harris County Houston tollway network.

A New Jersey Turnpike toll technician working out of the Milltown NJ maintenance shop is likely to face dismissal for an April 27 incident in which he sideswiped some parked cars and then collided with another motorist. He was driving a Turnpike vehicle. After the collision he was tested for alcohol and charged by police with drunk driving and other offenses.

North Texas Tollway Authority have fired an employee who police determined was responsible for a spectacular crash and fire on the Sam Rayburn Tollway (TX121) April 8.

Oklahoma state senator Earl Garrison has introduced a bill to lower the speed limit for trucks from 75mph to 65mph  on the Oklahoma Turnpike system following a terrible crash last summer when ten people were killed. The crash on the Rogers Turnpike (I-44) June 26 eastbound at MM321 in Ottawa County OK occurred when a tractor-trailer plowed into stopped traffic at the scene of a minor non-injury crash.

Ten people died in a multi-vehicle crash today on Will Rogers Turnpike (I-44) in far northeast Oklahoma after an 18-wheeler slammed into stopped traffic at high speed.

Traffic was stopped because of an earlier non-fatal crash. People on the scene are reported saying the truck barely slowed before hitting an SUV at the tail of a backup, suggesting driver inattention was the cause.

A Baltimore lawyer who represents the family of a John Short who died last August 10 when his tractor trailer effortlessly pushed through the parapet wall and plunged off the Chesapeake Bay Bridge is likely to sue the bridge operator Maryland Transportation (Toll) Authority (MDTA) for negligence. Attorney Keith Franz says the bridge may meet 1950s standards, but it isn't maintained and operated according to contemporary standards.

A small plane made an emergency landing on the eastbound roadway of the Pennsylvania Turnpike just before 1pm today hitting a tractor-trailer and bouncing over a guard rail. The pilot who was flying alone was taken to a medical center in Carlisle complaining of pain in his back. There were no other injuries and there has been no major disruption of traffic, local reports say.

The Portland Press Herald headlined it "Cigarette leads to Turnpike traffic woes." The poor cigarette was being stomped on.

The cigarette smoking driver Melissa Hernandez, 42 of Weymouth MA was so busy extinguishing her cigarette Sunday afternoon she neglected her driving and ran off the Maine Turnpike into a fence.

She told police she was distracted by the cigarette.

Officials say a car driver falling asleep at the wheel and veering into the path of a truck traveling the other direction during two-way operations was the cause of the crash that sent the truck crashing down into Chesapeake Bay last Sunday morning. The car driver, a 19 year old woman, told police at the hospital and a Washington Post reporter by telephone that she fell asleep at the wheel. It was 4am.

Maryland's notorious Chesapeake Bay Bridge suffered another fatal collision in two-way traffic on Sunday morning. A tractor trailer struck a car in the opposing direction of traffic at around 4am, lost control, neatly punched out a section of concrete parapet and plunged 10m (35ft) into the waters of the Bay.

The driver was killed.