Wind blamed for accident

High winds were blamed for this tractor-trailer loss of control and overturn on Arkansas Highway 102 West in Decatur Monday morning. Police chief Terry Luker and Decatur firefighter Forest Tharp looked on while FNA employees surveyed the damage to their shipment of pressure washer motors.
High winds were blamed for this tractor-trailer loss of control and overturn on Arkansas Highway 102 West in Decatur Monday morning. Police chief Terry Luker and Decatur firefighter Forest Tharp looked on while FNA employees surveyed the damage to their shipment of pressure washer motors.

— High winds were blamed for a semi-truck accident in Decatur on Monday morning.

The truck, driven by KennethRader, 62, of Rogers, overturned and slid off Arkansas Highway 102 West and through a fence. Rader was transported to the Gravette Hospital with minor injuries, according to police.

Police chief Terry Luker said he believed that as the truckrounded the sharp corner near Veterans Park, it was hit broadside by heavy gusts of winds and pushed off the road. The truck, owned by WW Transport, of Springdale, was carrying a load of pressure washer motors and was almost within sight ofits delivery destination, the FNA Group pressure-washer plant.

According to a wind advisory issued by the National Weather Service in Tulsa, wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour were common in Benton County on Monday.

The advisory warned that winds made driving high profile vehicles hazardous.

Rader was not believed to be speeding and was not issued a citation for the accident, according to Decatur officer Larry Fiedorowicz, who investigated the accident.

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High winds were blamed for this tractor-trailer loss of control and overturn on Arkansas Highway 102 West in Decatur Monday morning.

An Empire electric line crew was working a few hundred yards from where the truck came to rest on its side.

Matt Neustel of Gravette and Eric Clark of Webb City, Mo., said they were standing behind the Empire bucket truck when they heard the truck run off the road.They said they didn’t see the accident until it was nearly over but heard the sound of the truck sliding off the road.

Nuestel said the noise wasn’t exceptionally loud, just out of the ordinary, and that he didn’t hear any squealing tires.

“By the time we looked, it had just about come to a stop,” he said.

Nuestel said he was glad the tractor-trailer rig didn’t slide off the road earlier in the curve or it may have hit the Empire trucks and workmen.

News, Pages 1 on 01/18/2012