SOMERSET COUNTY, Pa. — A tractor-trailer driver died after leaping from his vehicle after a failure of his truck’s brake system on Sept. 9 in Pennsylvania.
WJAC reports that Alexander Johnson, 42, of Amory, Mississippi, was driving on Route 160 near Wellersburg, Pennsylvania, at approximately 1:30 a.m. Friday when the brakes on his truck apparently malfunctioned. Police said Johnson decided to “leap” from the moving vehicle, which then traveled off the roadway and struck several trees before being engulfed in flames.
Johnson succumbed to his injuries on the scene. Photos from the Wellsburg, Pennsylvania Facebook page showed the cab fully engulfed by fire, as well as the remains of the truck the following day.
Route 160 reopened Friday night following an 18-hour cleanup.
The Trucker News Staff produces engaging content for not only TheTrucker.com, but also The Trucker Newspaper, which has been serving the trucking industry for more than 30 years. With a focus on drivers, the Trucker News Staff aims to provide relevant, objective content pertaining to the trucking segment of the transportation industry. The Trucker News Staff is based in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Another one of us bites the dust 🥺😣😢. As if our jobs are not stressful enough, government and truck stops add to it with their unnecessary regulations and parking fees, mile high price increase on necessities to live and do our jobs like diesel fuel, food, water and let’s not forget to mention the condition of the roads that cause hundreds of wrecks with loss of life and unnecessary damage and maintenance to the commercial trucks we drive, bolts vibrating loose, tires popping and wearing out much too quickly and the like. I can feel his fear when he chose to try to survive and jumped. I pray Father blesses his family with peace during this awful time for them and all other families mourning the loss of their loved one while working this dangerous job while our government and the money shakers choose to continue to put our young adults behind the wheel of a commercial vehicle like it’s a car and tell them to work and have fun, killing themselves and others in the process, and let’s not forget the automatic self driving truck in which will be a nightmare on the roads as it will haul literally tons of cargo all by itself across the US. 🤦♀️ Think people!!
I couldn’t agree with you more Lori. The idiots in Washington and the CEO’s of trucking companies are only interested in one thing, ” How to make the BOTTOM Line thicker”. Children driving trucks and auto driven trucks scare the hell out of me.
RIP driver Alexander. May God bless your family as they deal with their loss.
Thank you Richard. Be safe!
Rip driver…
I’ve been a Class 8 driver for almost 29 years and have pulled 42-foot double milk tankers, as well as double air-slides with three and four pods. Gross weight for either type of combination is 129,000 pounds. I drive in the Rocky Mountain West: I-80, I-5, US 395 and US 95 to name just a few. In all my years, I have never had my brakes– when used in conjunction with the jake brake– fail me and subsequently put the vehicle out of control. My guess is the decedent was out of control at some point in the descent just enough to lose all control, which cost him his life. I have not had a moving violation since February 2, 2001. My last accident was a tiny thing at Christmastime 1998. My philosophy is to never get myself in a hurry, and to just let those who are impatient beyond words go right ahead. Smokey Bear is up the road somewhere and sooner or later, he’ll slow them down for twenty to thirty minutes
Well David, I’m sure we are all so glad that you where there and knew exactly what happened or did your crystal ball tell you. Don’t use a platform like this to blow & ring your bells and whistles to make yourself look like Mr, Super Trucker. It is of my opinion when someone does this they are desiring 3 things. 1) admiration due to insecurities 2) to actually be mean and make the victim out to look like an imbecile 3) just to start some crap. All of which is wrong, evil, uncalled for and NOT of a professional truck driver. Granpa always said, “if ya ain’t got nothin nice to say, don’t say nothing, until someone acts like you have.
shhhh!!!
you just became the person you were chastising..
Lmbo 😆, I thought of that but as it’s been said, “all it takes is a good person to do nothing for evil to flourish”. It’s a shame someone has to be corrected at all when it comes to loosing a road brother. I will definitely say I was very harsh. Should’ve been more “light” with my words I guess. I do hope the message was received though.
Lori you’re a very angry person. You also sound like you shouldn’t be in trucking, but again, you’d complain about how it’s others’ fault no matter what you did for a living.
Hi Kurt,
I call it as I see it and understand it. If you believe what Mr. David Toler said and condone his statement on this platform, then you’re worse than him. I’m not angry. It hurts me because I’m a very empathetic person. For anyone to show so little care about a person who has lost their life doing an honorable job is just awful. I speak my mind. Sometimes the truth hurts but hopefully it’ll help people realize their hurtful actions. There’s always a lesson to be learned when someone critiques other, whether is with brutal honesty or sugar coated.