Tractor Trailer Blocks 460

The eastbound lanes of Highway 460 in Prince Edward County were blocked on Tuesday afternoon for several hours while crews attempted to right an overturned 2006 Freightliner tractor trailer.

Virginia State Trooper T. Walker says that the driver swerved left into the median to avoid another vehicle, swerved back across the highway onto the right hand shoulder striking an embankment and overturning, separating the empty cargo container from the trailer. The vehicle came to a rest on its side a few hundred feet past the intersection of Green Bay Road and 460.

The driver, Michael Leroy Slimp, age 54 of Portsmouth, Va., was transported to Centra Southside Community Hospital with serious but not life-threatening injuries. VDOT employees were nearby working on the shoulder of the road and brought heavy equipment to the scene to reopen the road quickly. (Check out video of the truck being righted on our Facebook page: on.fb.me/SSMessenger or search for Southside Messenger)

Slimp was charged with reckless driving.