4 Killed as Rolls of Steel Fall Off Truck in Buffalo
Sheet metal rolls each weighing 3 1/2 tons fell off a flatbed truck Monday, crushing three cars and killing all four people inside.
The southbound truck had been hauling two flatbed trailers loaded with steel rolls along Interstate 190 during the morning rush hour. As the driver changed lanes, the rear trailer overturned and hurled five rolls over a short concrete barrier separating the lanes, state police Lt. Jack Fay said.
The steel rolls, measuring about 2 feet wide and 4 feet in diameter, landed on the three northbound cars and crushed them. Another car hit the debris, and that driver was slightly injured. A fifth car on an entrance ramp was struck by debris, but the driver was not hurt.
“The stuff came flying over, and a couple of cars started on fire,” said Daniel Lyons, who was two or three vehicles behind the crash. “All you could see was debris and smoke.”
The truck driver, Philip Barker, 34, was uninjured. No charges had been filed. Barker works for Ken Staub Trucking Inc. of Buffalo and had been hauling the steel used to make highway guardrails to Blasdell, 10 miles away.
Investigators had not determined what caused the steel to fall off the truck.
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