Richard Llamas Injured in Fiery Truck Accident on I-95 in Dunn, NC
UPDATE (January 11, 2023): The truck driver injured in this accident has been identified as 59-year-old Richard Llamas.
Dunn, NC — January 7, 2023, a truck driver was seriously injured when his 18-wheeler hit an overpass and caught fire on Interstate 95 in Harnett County.
Authorities say the incident happened around 3:45 p.m. on southbound I-95 near mile marker 72 and Pope Road. Preliminary investigation suggests a tractor-trailer hauling cookies was traveling on the interstate when it crashed into the Pope Road overpass under unknown circumstances. After the impact the big rig caught fire.
The truck driver was trapped briefly in the burning truck but managed to escape. He was airlifted to an area hospital for treatment of serious injuries including burns.
The investigation continues. No further information is currently available.
One of the major pitfalls of "breaking news" is that it rarely if ever tells the whole story. Seeing that a truck hit an overpass and caught fire may be enough to make some folks jump to conclusions, but there's clearly more work to do before anyone could say how and why that happened.
Could a full and careful investigation turn up a simple explanation? Maybe. Can that effort be foregone in favor of assumptions about what happened, though? Certainly not. A man was badly injured while just doing his job, and he and his loved ones deserve to know exactly how and why he ended up in the hospital that day. I hope authorities and the trucking company will do their best to answer the many questions that still remain.
