CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — Multiple police agencies were involved in a pursuit involving a tractor-trailer Wednesday morning on I-79 southbound that originated in Clarksburg.
Deputies said a woman driving a commercial tractor-trailer with Texas plates was involved in a hit-and-run at around 7:20 a.m.
Not long after the incident, the 18-wheeler rolled into the parking lot of the 7-11 in Quiet Dell at a high rate of speed. Robert Keener of Lost Creek, W.Va. was filling up with gas and said he shouted to the female driver to slow down.
“I just heard the tires screech and she turned into the parking lot super fast. She had to be going over 30 miles an hour,” Keener told Metronews. “I hollered at her to slow down because she had the window down. She got out and got in my face.”
Keener said he could smell alcohol on the woman’s breath as she berated him. Keener called police, but they had already been summonsed by another man who drove a blue dodge pickup. He was the victim of the hit and run on the interstate.
“She was trying to take off and the cops pulled in and made her step out of the vehicle. He was talking to me, her, and the guy in the blue Dodge. As he was talking to the man in the blue Dodge that’s when she tried to get away,” Keener added.
Police with guns drawn ordered the woman to stop, but she fled the parking lot at a high rate of speed and led a pursuit sound bound on I-79.
The tractor-trailer fled south to the Weston/Buckhannon exit where deputies from the Lewis County Sheriff’s Department deployed stop sticks. The tractor-trailer rolled on its side and the driver was taken into custody.
The unidentified driver was taken to the United Hospital Center for evaluation.
This story will be updated.