LANCASTER COUNTY, S.C. — A truck carrying Amazon packages crashed and flipped over in Lancaster County on Wednesday morning.
Highway 97 near the Kershaw County line was closed for several hours while crews worked to get the overturned truck back on its wheels and collect the packages.
Traffic alert. A truck carrying Amazon packages turned over on Hwy 97 in Lancaster County. This is very close to Kershaw County. Driver had minor injuries. Road will close once they begin removing the truck. Likely for several hours.
— Greg Suskin (@GSuskinWSOC9) January 13, 2021
The truck ended up crashing in a ditch filled with water. The area was covered in thick fog Wednesday morning but officials have not said if the weather contributed to the wreck.
Police said the driver was hurt but is expected to be OK.
Lancaster County emergency management officials are asking the state to make Highway 97 safer in this area. They said the Wednesday morning crash is the third in a 5-day span.
Since Friday, a trash truck and an Aldi’s grocery store refrigerated truck have crashed in the same spot in the same way. Last month, a tractor-trailer spilled bleach and other toxic chemicals when it overturned on the highway.
Emergency officials told Channel 9 it’s not about the drivers of those trucks, it’s about the road.
“When you have that many truck accidents, it would lead me to believe that it’s not all driver error,” Emergency Management Director Darren Player said.
Player believes the road has a bad design. He said it’s banked the wrong way and needs to be fixed.
“We’ve had a lot of wrecks in that particular location. Concrete trucks, flat bed trucks with glass, Log trucks. I can’t tell you how many log trucks have flipped over into there,” he said.
Troopers blocked the road for ten hours while crews worked to clean the road. The truck driver will be charged with driving too fast for conditions, but that’s common after most accidents, whether or not the road may have been a factor.
On a map of upcoming Department of Transportation Projects, the stretch of road is colored green, meaning it’s up for a redesign for safety improvements. There’s no timetable on the project.
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