Jackknifed Tractor Trailer Snarls Traffic on I-75

Photo courtesy of East Ridge Fire Department

A jackknifed tractor trailer snarled late morning traffic on Interstate 75, Saturday, officials said.

According to East Ridge Fire Chief Mike Williams, firefighter, police and Lifeguard EMS were dispatched to I-75 at 11:30 a.m. on a single vehicle accident with entrapment. When first responders arrived they found a tractor trailer had jackknifed through the guardrail. The driver of the truck had climbed out of the wrecked truck prior to arrival of emergency personnel. The driver sustained minor injuries, Chief Williams said.

Crews worked to contain leaking diesel fuel from the crushed fuel tanks on the truck.

“Great Job to the green shift and all that were involved,” Chief Williams said.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.