Tractor-Trailer Carrying Potting Soil Overturns On I-40

JOHNSTON COUNTY, N.C. — An overturned tractor-trailer hauling potting soil blocked multiple lanes of Interstate 40 Thursday morning, causing significant traffic delays.

The accident was reported around 9:10 a.m. on I-40 East near Veterans Parkway (312 mile marker). When troopers arrived, they found a tractor-trailer lying on its side in the median and potting soil scattered across the eastbound median.

According to a preliminary investigation by the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, a 2015 Peterbilt tractor-trailer operated by Nathaniel Daeshawn Lawson, 24, of Oxford, was traveling eastbound in the left lane when the vehicle experienced a right-front tire separation.

Troopers said the driver overcorrected, causing the truck to swerve into the path of a 2020 Toyota Camry driven by Eduard Enrique Florez Maldonado, 54, of Durham. The tractor-trailer struck the rear of the Camry before veering back toward the median, hitting a concrete barrier and overturning onto its left side.

The truck and flatbed trailer, which were loaded with pallets of potting soil, came to rest in the median. The Toyota was also moved into the median following the collision.

Despite the dramatic crash, no injuries were reported.

Several tires on the tractor were found to be bald during the investigation. Lawson was operating the vehicle but was not its owner. No charges had been filed as of Thursday afternoon.

The Highway Patrol notified its commercial vehicle enforcement division, which will conduct a post-crash inspection of the truck.