I-81 in Rockbridge County claimed several lives in a 3 day period. On Friday January 27th a Natural Bridge man was killed when he crashed at mile marker 182 South Bound as he was on his way home from work. The accident happened around 6:30; the weather in the area was clear.
The second deadly accident occured Monday night January 30th when a man from Alabama died after the tractor trailer he was driving rear ended another tractor trailer that had broken down around mile marker 196 in the construction zone of the north bound lanes, approximnately 6 miles noth of Lexington. The accident occurred at 6:10 p.m. The driver died after his truck caught fire and the fire spread to the other truck that had been hit in the rear. The vehicle that caught fire was carrying shredded aluminum and the vehicle that was struck was carrying fresh produce. The interstate was closed for 14 hours while crews worked to clean up the incident. A detour was in place for all north bound traffic.
A local woman from Fairfield was killed around noon on Tuesday when the vehicle she was driving crashed in the 1800 block of North Lee Highway. The vehicle hit a tree, rolled over and struck another tree before coming to rest.
On Thursday February 2nd another tractor trailer incident in Botetourt County impacted travelers on I-81 in Rockbridge County. Shortly after 2:00 a.m. a tractor trailer crashed on I-81 at mile marker 167 north bound spilling the contents of his load, the truck was then struck by another tractor trailer. The driver who was from Pennsylvania died as a result of the accident and the interstate in both directions remain closed while haz-mat crews clean up the spill. The truck was carrying trioglycol which is a poisonous material.
