Nebraska State Police say winter weather is the likely
culprit in a nine-vehicle pileup this week that proved fatal for one trucker.
A tractor-trailer driven by Jody Gordon, 35, was heading
west on Interstate 80 on Monday, Feb. 12, when it clipped the back of a
four-wheeler driving the same direction, sending both vehicles into the
highway's median.
Gordon's rig continued to slide and struck an eastbound
tractor-trailer, causing that truck to jackknife and spill a load of pigs onto
Interstate 80 near Hershey, NE.
Three additional trucks and three more four-wheelers piled
up at the crash scene, which shut down eastbound lanes on the highway for nine
hours, according to Deb Collins, a spokeswoman for the Nebraska State Patrol.
Gordon, a 35-year-old Land
Line Magazine reader from Bismarck, ND, was killed in the wreck.
Investigators haven't found out what started the crash, other
than citing slick roads from the winter's recent snow and ice.
"There was heavy snow and ice at the time," Collins said. "I
don't know if (Gordon) was attempting to pass or whether the (four-wheeler)
slowed down."
An estimated 150 pigs were scattered by the crash, some of
which were killed, Collins said. Troopers occasionally see animals on the
highway after accidents involving pickups and tractor trailers, she said.
"Any time you have as much interstate in your state as we
do, unfortunately you get (wrecks) involving livestock," Collins said.
- By Charlie Morasch,
staff writer
charlie_morasch@landlinemag.com
