Ohio truck driver killed in crash on I-75 near Williamsburg Thursday

Emergency workers say a tractor trailer driver died about 20 minutes after wrecking his semi near the 14-mile marker of I-75 early Thursday morning.

“I talked to him for a few minutes. He told me his name, date of birth and stuff like that. He was alert and talking, and he just went down from there. He just slowly faded out. There wasn’t a whole lot we could do,” said Glenn Willmore, a volunteer firefighter with Three-Point Fire and Rescue, who was one of the first responders at the scene. “He said he fell asleep behind the wheel.”

Whitley County Coroner Andy Croley pronounced David A. McHenry, 56, of Massillon, Ohio, dead at the scene.

Croley said that McHenry died from multiple injuries sustained during a motor vehicle accident.

“All of his injuries were internal, which is why he was able to talk to first responders,” Croley said. “With his internal injuries, he received extensive damage that caused him to bleed.”

No autopsy was ordered, but a routine toxicology test will be performed, which is standard procedure in a fatal accident.
Three-Point Fire and Rescue Chief Gary Crussenberry said the accident happened about 4 a.m. near the 13-mile marker in the southbound lane.

Crussenberry said that the tractor trailer went about 200 feet off the right shoulder of the road behind the guardrail, and struck some trees.

The force of the impact slid the load to the front of the trailer, which compounded efforts to extricate the driver from the vehicle, Crussenberry said.

Willmore said firefighters from Three-Point and Williamsburg Fire Department were about 20 minutes into the extrication process when the driver quit communicating, and first responders couldn’t get any response from him.

“That’s what makes it really hard for us. We couldn’t do anything for the trees and the position that the truck was in,” Willmore said. “We did our best and went as far as we could go. It’s sad. We don’t like to be in that position. It’s hard on everybody. It’s a tragedy no matter how you look at it.”

Crussenberry said that after Croley pronounced the driver dead, emergency workers had to first move the trailer so they could get to the body inside the cab.

“We had to release the trailer from the truck in order to get the truck to sit down where we could get him out. It was a tough one. We were working from the top, and we couldn’t get down to him,” Crussenberry said. “Once we got down to where he was at, he was trapped in the bottom of the cab too.”

Kentucky Vehicle Enforcement Officer Randy Radar said that the semi was owned by Lorimar Logistics and was hauling food products.

Crussenberry said it appeared to be mainly cans of tomato products.

McHenry was coming from Ohio, but Croley said that he didn’t know the destination.

No other vehicles were involved in the accident. No one besides the driver was in the semi.

Both southbound lanes opened again for travel about 11 a.m.

Other agencies assisting at the scene included: Whitley County Sheriff’s Department, Williamsburg Police Department, Whitley County EMS, the Division of Emergency Management, and the Whitley County Health Department.