2:50 p.m.: Fatality reported after two-vehicle accident on Interstate 81 - journal-news.net | News, sports, jobs, community information for Martinsburg - The Journal

Anyone else get held up in that mess? It took me just under 2 hours to go from exit 317 to mile 319.6 when they finally got it cleaned up and opened traffic back up. They said US-11 was moving at the same speed as the interstate - 0mph. I should've listened to my instincts and took 522 to Hancock, then across 70 to 81.

 

WTF? Where is Hobo, doesn't he drive for FedEx?

The pic looks like the car drove into the back of FedEx from the damage you can see. Knowing 81, that scenario would not surprise me at all, trucks pop out into the left lane to pass but the cars are running 85 while the truck might be doing 62. It's a wonder more rear enders at 70 mph don't happen on 81. VA is trying to somewhat fix it NB around the Lexington area. That work on the shoulder, they are going to put some truck lanes in so that they can pass one another in places without taking up both of the current lanes, let's see how it works first but I wish they would do the whole of 81 with more lanes.

 

Nah couldn't have been hobo he always drives at 85 in the left lane

 

Looking at the pic of the trailer on it's side, it's a single-axle dolly, but I can't tell if the trailer is single or double axle. Seems a bit short to be anything but a pup. And, the more I enlarge the pic, the fuzzier the details get.

I remember seeing O/O rigs in the left lane a lot, and moving even faster than the cars. Also, seems to me that Fed-Ex cut their speed down too, didn't they?

 

Wind, it looks like it was part of a doubles unit, it also looks like that is the rear trailer. It's a single axle trailer.

 

Here I am. Sorry, been busy watching Trump make an azz out of himself this week. :lol:

That is a FedEx FREIGHT pup. I drive for FedEx GROUND (green instead of red letters.)

I've never heard of a double axle dolly, and as far as I know FedEx doesn't pull rocky mtn doubles.... so, it would have to be a pup. The pup (of course) only has one axle.... but I noticed that it appears to be one of the trailers that use super single tires! (only one tire each side instead of two.)

The article doesn't give much info. Unkown reasons? What.... NOBODY saw what happened?

Why is the pup on its side? My guess? The left side rear tire seems to be flat and off the rim. A blowout could have caused the trailer to swing out of control and flip over. The driver may have braked hard when it happened, and the car may have had nowhere to go.

If I'm not mistaken, FedEx Freight trucks have actually been turned UP recently. Ground trucks are O/O's and are not governed BY THE COMPANY.

 

When you look at the damage to the driver's side of the car, and see that the FEDEX trailer flipped onto it's right side......do you really think that the car was headed north...just because it was in the northbound lanes of traffic?

After reading this article; 3:50 p.m.: One confirmed dead, two others taken to hospital after I-81 wreck - journal-news.net | News, sports, jobs, community information for Martinsburg - The Journal , I start to wonder, because the car had New York plates, if perhaps the car didn't cross the center medium, and hit the trailer at the rear axle, causing the trailer to topple onto it's right side and blowing out the tire too.

There is just to much damage to the car, for the car to have hit a the trailer before it fell or after it toppled. There couldn't have been that much speed differential between 2 vehicles traveling northbound......unless that Toyota was doing 120 or so..........cuz I have been passed plenty of times on that stretch by Fedex Freight trucks doing well over 55.

Throw that car across the center medium into the trailer.......at 65mph traveling speed for both vehicles.......and you get severe damage to the driver's side of the car....and the rear trailer flopped over onto it's right side. It is entirely possible that the trailer slid the car around during the collision, causing folks to initially think that BOTH were northbound.

It would be interesting to see the LEO's investigation report.

 

I think you may be right, Stan! Still can't believe there were no witnesses! And, the "so-called" reporter is doing a LOUSY job! I was waiting for the "update' article.... thanks.

Not only would the impact blow the tire and topple the trailer, but the trucker might have seen it coming and swerved in an attempt to miss the car. This would cause the back trailer to "wiggle" even MORE.... adding to the toppling of it. But, if the car crossed the median, there SHOULD be some evidence of that. Journalists today aren't worth a shizz!

 

That is why I think it would be interesting to see the LEO's investigation report. Reporters are just people..........like so many other people.........who want everything handed to them, without effort to look. I'm willing to bet that the real witnesses, never even stopped.

It is entirely possible that the Fedex driver never saw the car coming.

 

When I went through after the accident, I didn't notice any tracks across the median. That doesn't mean they weren't there, I just didn't see them. They had just opened up the highway to people who had been stuck for 2+ hours, so there was some interesting driving until north of Hagerstown. It's a wonder more wrecks didn't happen after it opened back up.