2 escaped unhurt in I-70 West semi crash in Brookville

UPDATE @ 1:35 a.m: All lanes on I-70, near the overpass at Number 9 Road, just east of Preble County Line Road, have reopened following a semi crash Wednesday night, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

UPDATE @ 11:30 p.m.: The driver tells us a backup driver was asleep in the rear of the cab when it crashed on I-70 West in Brookville.

Both escaped unhurt.

The 33-year-old driver whose name was not released, said they were transporting melons from California to Connecticut.

He said when he realized traffic in front of him had stopped, he saw open highway (on the westbound side of the interstate) and “went for it.”

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Troopers with the Ohio State Highway Patrol said the driver will be charged with failure to control. They are attributing the accident to inattentive driving, based on what the driver has told them.

Frances Von Friedeburg, who is moving to Montana for a new job, said she and her father would love to keep going at some point. They had left Washington, D.C., and had been on the road more than nine hours when they drove upon what she said was a “giant truck just flipped over.”

A couple of smaller cars were able to get around the semitrailer, she said. They were left to sit behind two large trucks when the state patrol closed the interstate.

"It was a little exciting in the beginning, with all the officers were here, but now that we've been sitting here for two hours it's a little exhausting," Von Friedeburg said.

At midnight, a crew from Sandy’s Towing was continuing to remove melons that filled the trailer. They tried to right the rig without removing the melons, but the weight was too much. They are loading the melons onto a flatbed trailer.

All the lanes on I-70 West in Brookville have been shut down, off and on, since the accident occurred just after 8 p.m. near the overpass at Number 9 Road, just east of Preble County Line Road.

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