HIGH POINT – A truck driver was severely injured Thursday morning after a car merging into his lane and hit the truck, the N.C. State Highway Patrol said.
The truck driver, whose name was not immediately released, had life-threatening injuries and was flown to Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem.
He was driving a tractor-trailer south in the right lane of U.S. 29/70, also known as Business Interstate 85, approaching Old Thomasville Road in northwest Randolph County about 11:25 a.m. when a Lexus passenger car in the left lane merged into the right lane and struck the tractor-trailer, the Highway Patrol said.
The tractor-trailer traveled off the roadway, struck a bridge abutment for the Old Thomasville Road overpass, overturned and caught fire.
The operator of the Lexus, whose name also was not immediately released, was not injured.
This collisionwas still under investigation.
All southbound lanes of U.S. 29/70 were closed through at least late Thursday afternoon while the wreck was cleared and the N.C. Department of Transportation worked to inspect the Old Thomasville Road bridge over the highway. NCDOT authorities estimate the inspection process to take approximately three hours.
