Tractor-trailer with cattle that crashed was on highway ramp with speed warnings
The ramp from Interstate 85 south to Interstate 77 south remains closed after a tractor-trailer hauling cattle overturned early Tuesday morning, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said.
The department said it received a call about the overturned trailer at about 12:22 a.m. and responded to assist with traffic.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Animal Care and Control also responded.
The driver was not injured and the cattle were contained to the trailer, the department said.
Master Trooper Roger Roberts, a North Carolina State Highway Patrol public information officer for Mecklenburg County, said 40 cattle were being transported at the time of the crash. Some survived, but several were killed in the crash, he said.
The driver will likely face charges, Roberts said. Although the cause of the crash is still being investigated, troopers don’t think the driver was intoxicated, he said.
Jen Goodwin, a communications officer with the North Carolina Department of Transportation, said the cattle were being transported to Augusta, Georgia.
The crash site, where I-85 transitions into I-77, has chevrons, flashing lights, and signs warning people to slow down because tractor-trailers often overturn at that ramp, Goodwin said.
“We do have a lot of signage to advise folks to they need to slow down going into that curve,” she said. Tractors-trailers take it “too fast or their load may shift sometimes, and that might also cause a rollover.”
