Posted on 07/22/2017 9:25:30 AM PDT by csvset
Man dies after his vehicle carrying 2,000 pounds of missing railway plates overturns
By Jeff Hampton The Virginian-Pilot Jul 21, 2017 Updated 13 hrs ago AULANDER, N.C.
A man died Tuesday after he lost control of his vehicle loaded with more than 100 railway plates missing from a work area.
Tarris Lamont Wilkins, 40, of Windsor, died at the scene about 7 a.m. on Brick Mill Road north of Windsor, said 1st Sgt. Rodney Sawyer of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.
The 1995 Ford Explorer was loaded with more than 100 rail plates weighing about 2,000 pounds, he said. The plates are used to fasten rails to wood cross ties. Investigators believe the weight of the plates shifted as Wilkins went around a curve in the road. The Explorer overturned and Wilkins was ejected, he said. Plates were scattered over the area.
Minutes earlier, Wilkins was seen at the intersection of a railroad and Brick Mill Road less than a mile from the crash scene, said Bertie County Sheriff John Holley. His vehicle was loaded with plates that had been lying near the tracks as crews made repairs, he said. An officer with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission stopped to question Wilkins. As the officer called the Bertie County Sheriff’s Office for help, Wilkins left the scene, Holley said.
I guess his family will sue Ford for not having proper tie-down anchors in their Explorers....
Yeah, I was wondering about his vehicle. Do the seats fold flat or perhaps they’re removable ? He probably had these things stacked on the seats, which led to his undoing.
The paper calls them missing rather than stolen.
I don’t know, but the scrap yard that I go to has my driver’s license photo in the computer and keeps a total on how much is paid out. I’m sure they probably share this info with the IRS once you hit a certain level. Heck I would probably scrap more if they didn’t keep such records.
“...thinking nobody would notice the 3” deep gouge in the asphalt.”
My favorite one is from right after the USSR went bust and things were somewhat chaotic. The police stopped a guy towing a MiG away from an former-Soviet airbase.
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