Last Updated on August 9, 2018 6:13 pm
An overturned dump truck lead the closure of U.S. 421 at the bottom of Wilkes Mountain on Wednesday.
Eric Scott Schnelle, age 43 of Pinnacle, was transported to Wilkes Medical Center after walking away from the crash with abrasions, bruises and minor lacerations, according to the Wilkes Journal Patriot.
Schnelle was coming down the mountain, in a 1998 Mack truck, in the eastbound lane near the lower of two runaway truck sand piles when he went off on the left and knocked down 15 orange barrels set up by the N.C. Department of Transportation because of road construction, the paper reports.
The truck then entered the westbound lanes and continued going the wrong way down the mountain for about a quarter of a mile until it went farther to the left, up an embankment and overturned, the report also says. Schnelle was charged with reckless driving and driving left of center.
The truck was coming down the mountain from Blowing Rock with a load of dirt containing fuel debris to be disposed of in High Point.
Photos provided to WataugaOnline and used by permission: Melissa Hutchens
