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Witness Recounts First Few Moments Arriving At Deadly Madison County Wreck

Posted at 9:53 PM, Jul 01, 2018
and last updated 2018-07-01 21:53:52-04

MADISON COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) – Saturday’s wreck on I-75 in Madison County, which killed a man, was witnessed by a nurse who was traveling in the same direction at the same time. 

Grant Earls was on his way to Louisville when it happened in a familiar spot. 

“By the time I turned around and looked he was already over in the fast lane and went right off the interstate,” Earls told LEX 18 over the phone.

Right off I-75 in Madison County near Berea.  Grant is a nurse, so he stopped and went to help. 

“Kept running up the interstate, followed his tracks, and once you got to it, all you could see was the back of the trailer, which didn’t look bad,” said Earls.

But then he was able to get closer.

“Once you got to the side and could see the cab it was really bad,” said Earls.

Grant noticed discoloration to the driver’s arm and hand, so he knew the 58-year-old man from South Dakota, was having circulatory issues.

It was a four-hours-long ordeal to get him removed from the cab – an extraction the Madison County coroner said was the worst he’s seen in 40 years.  Grant was not surprised by that given the wreckage he saw.

“He was pinned in multiple places, the cab was just destroyed, the motor was about five feet from the cab,” said Earls.

The truck driver for ‘Halvor Lines’ did not survive; reminding an ER nurse of how precious life can be. 

“I had never seen anything like that ever,” said Earls.

The cause of the crash is under investigation.