Weight shift topples commercial truck at Commerce Avenue and South Street intersection

Drivers on the south side of Front Royal Sunday afternoon, August 29, were greeted by the sight of a commercial hauling truck overturned onto the sidewalk and grassy buffer area between the CVS Pharmacy and Commerce Avenue northbound. The driver, William Haines, who escaped the accident seemingly uninjured, said he was headed toward a Winchester destination from Stanely where he had picked up a load of scrap from vehicles tied to an estate liquidation. The load of tires and scrap metal shifted enough in the open-top carrier to take the whole trucking unit over as he was negotiating a left turn onto Commerce Avenue. Haines was subsequently issued a citation for reckless driving by FRPD.

Approaching the Commerce Ave. South St./John Marshall intersection about 3:20 p.m. Sunday. Below, the scene looking north from the grassy buffer to the CVS Pharmacy parking lot. Royal Examiner Photos by Roger Bianchini

Haines, of Hagerstown, Maryland, said he was relieved that neither he, nor anyone else had been injured as the accident occurred in the far right, northbound turn/merge lane of Commerce Avenue with no other vehicles or pedestrians impacted.

According to the FRPD report Haines “was following the mandated truck route and was negotiating a left turn from South Street onto Commerce Avenue. While turning, the load shifted within the roll off container being hauled and caused the truck to roll over onto its right side, spilling the contents of the container on the roadway and adjacent right-of-way.”

Maryland-based truck driver William Haines reports his situation and observes the recovery effort, as were a crowd of people.

A crowd of bystanders gathered in the CVS parking lot to observe efforts to right the vehicle, at first unsuccessful, as illustrated near the end of the below series of photographs. According to FRPD due to the technical difficulty of the recovery operation this area of Northbound Commerce Avenue was closed for six hours. The accident was reported at 2:19 p.m.; the site was cleared at 8:39 p.m.

A closer look at the situation; below, recovery crew oversees hookup effort to cab and truck bed.

Cab comes off the ground and spills fluids from engine; below, crew deals with engine spillage.

Crew ponders its lifting strategy – I think I’ve seen this kind of thing on TV recently – was it called ‘Helltown Haulers’?

And up we go, and go with both the cab and bed wrapped up underneath …

But is that lower truck bed wall going to hold? OUCH, I guess so but it looks like the rear-end chain linkage gave way. So close and yet so far away.

Some of the support vehicles on the scene from Shenandoah County