Big Rig Runs Off I-77; Crews Build Road To Remove Wreckage

A trucker is not only lucky to be alive, but lucky the wild ride he took early Tuesday only wiped out trees, grass and a fence.

Troopers said Robert Cummings was heading south on Interstate 77 in Chester County when he fell asleep at the wheel. He swerved off the highway near a bridge and plunged into the woods, troopers said. His big rig carved a gaping hole through the brush, smashed a fence and took out several trees before stopping in a cow pasture.

David McCain with the Richburg Fire Department was the first on the scene. When he got through the woods to the truck, he wasn't sure what he'd find.

“He was sitting in the truck on his cell phone just talking," McCain said.

The tractor trailer ended up 300 feet from the highway. In the dark of night, it was invisible from the interstate.

"He went straight down the embankment. He didn't turn over, missed a few great big trees, which was good. He was real lucky," McCain said.

He said when firefighters talked with Cummings, the truck driver wasn't sure what had happened. He answered their questions and then blacked out several times.

Cummings, from Effingham, S.C., was taken to Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill, treated and released.

Cummings works for Southeastern Freight out of Columbia. A supervisor said he was carrying miscellaneous freight and nothing hazardous. An environmental clean up company was on hand after the crash checking the soil and a nearby creek. They said there was not a significant fuel spill.

Cummings has been charged with driving too fast for conditions.

His truck, battered by tree limbs and covered with debris, took hours to remove from the pasture.

The nearest road is 2 miles from the accident scene. Officials planned to build their own road with gravel to help tow the tractor trailer out of the field.

IMAGES: Big Rig Runs Of I-77