CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A driver was severely injured in a crash that shut down busy Randolph Road for several hours Monday morning, investigators said.
They said a car inbound on Randolph was hit by the back of a flatbed tractor trailer that was trying to back across all five lanes of Randolph.
[ PHOTOS: Man sent to hospital after tractor-trailer crash in south Charlotte ]
“The flatbed was backing up across Randolph going into a construction site to pick up a bulldozer,” North Carolina Highway Patrol Trooper Shawn Hurley said.
Hurley said the truck driver had no one helping guide him across the lanes of traffic.
Driver Dave Pringle, who was caught up in the traffic, wondered why.
“He should have had a spotter or somebody to back him up, halt traffic or something,” Pringle said.
CMPD investigators and troopers questioned the driver and said there are no regulations requiring that oncoming traffic be alerted when a large vehicle backs across lanes of traffic.
In an area as routinely congested as Cotswold, neighbor Marsha Sherrill thinks there should be.
“It’s really dangerous and it’s scary and people, even when they’re being careful, still can’t see who’s coming and going,” Sherrill said.
She worries that there could be more incidents like Monday’s crash. In addition to a new PNC bank under construction at the corner of Randolph and Sharon Amity, plans are also underway to add a new Publix grocery store in the same block.
“It’s bad enough now,” Sherrill said. “I can’t imagine with all this extra construction how we’re going to manage."
CMPD has yet to release information on the driver of the car that was hit or say whether the truck driver will face charges.