Similar salt truck involved in the accident on Thursday morning… Photo by Barry West
According to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, two Tennessee Department of Transportation salt trucks where spreading salt on I-24 eastbound at the 105 mile marker on Thursday morning around 4:35am. As they were attempting to clear snow and ice from I-24 a tractor-trailer was traveling in the left lane of I-24 behind one of the TDOT vehicles. The driver of the 18-wheeler, 24 year-old Jonathan White from Swainsboro, Ga. merged into the right lane attempting to pass the TDOT vehicle which was in the left lane. It was at this time the tractor-trailer crashed into the rear of one of the salt trucks driven by 53 year-old Steven Gowen of Manchester, TN which was in the right lane of I-24. The TDOT truck was struck so hard by the 18-wheeler that it was knocked over onto its side.
Gowen, White and a passenger in the tractor-trailer were taken by Coffee County EMS with unknown injuries to Medical Center of Manchester.
