The accident happened around 2:50 p.m. when a red Dodge sedan came off a roll-back tow truck on Strathmore Avenue and rolled down the hill into on coming traffic.
A tractor-trailer hauling gravel struck the runaway vehicle demolishing the front end of the Dodge. The truck overturned on its side, spilling gravel all over the road.
Tony McGilverary, 42, of Sanford came upon the wreck shortly after it happened. He and the driver of the tow truck, Frank Douglas Peterson, pulled the truck driver from the smoking vehicle.
“I’ve been a truck driver for 24 years,” McGilverary told The Pilot, “and I’ve never seen a wreck this bad.”
The driver of the overturned truck, Jerry Cobb, 30, of Raeford escaped with no serious injuries.
Peterson, 27, of Fayetteville, told police that he heard a pop when the vehicle came off the tow truck. Police officers could not tell if something on the vehicle broke, because the accident destroyed the front end.
No charges were filed by the Highway Patrol, which investigated the accident.
The truck was traveling west on Indiana Avenue when it struck the car. It overturned and the entire load of gravel spilled into the road. Rescue workers had to bring in a bulldozer to clean up the debris.
