Thunderstorms plague mountain travelers: Accidents occur on rain-slickened roads across state: July 31, 2005
ABOVE: Lightning at the Pax interchange along the West Virginia Turnpike, near Beckley on Sunday.
EXPEDITION VIDEO: Tractor-trailer wreck caught on camera, RealVideo, 2.2MB, full-screen video (watch to the right of the light pole next to the green highway sign)
BECKLEY, WV - Thunderstorms developed on Sunday afternoon near Webster Springs and traveled southwest along the eastern mountains of West Virginia, producing hail, lightning and heavy rain which caused hazardous conditions on area roads. Locations affected included Summersville, Fayetteville, Oak Hill, Beckley and Bluefield. Route 19, the West Virginia Turnpike and Interstates 64 and 77 were major highways affected by Sunday's storms.
Accidents were commonplace through the evening. In Beckley, a tractor-trailer traveling southbound on the West Virginia Turnpike struck a Camaro and jackknifed, ending up sideways partially in the median near the Beckley travel plaza. At the time of the accident, one of our cameras was set up to capture lightning strikes nearby, and inadvertently caught the accident on tape in the distance.
The truck's fuel tank ruptured in the crash, requiring the highway to be shut down temporarily while hazardous materials crews worked to clean up the spill. Some fuel made it into nearby ditches. No one was hurt in the wreck.
BELOW: Aftermath of the tractor-trailer vs. car collision on the West Virginia Turnpike in Beckley. Fuel pours from the ruptured tank as crews work to clean up the spill. One of our cameras set up to capture lightning strikes inadvertently caught the accident on tape.
My work is, at this very moment you are reading this, generating the most income it ever has in my career. Yet, I was forced to shut down the professional side of my successul operation, against my will, due to one cause alone: 95% of that revenue is being stolen by piracy and copyright infringement. I've lost more than $1 million to copyright infringement in the last 15 years, and it's finally brought an end to my professional storm chasing operation. Do not be misled by the lies of infringers, anti-copyright activists and organized piracy cartels. This page is a detailed, evidenced account of my battle I had to undertake to just barely stay in business, and eventually could not overcome. It's a problem faced by all of my colleagues and most other creators in the field.
Web Site Design and Internet Marketing by CIS Internet
From Dan: Please Read
To my regular readers, I offer my apologies for this heavy-handed notice. Unfortunately it has become necessary, so please bear with me!
Please don't copy/upload this site's content to social media or other web sites. Those copies have been a critical problem for me, seriously harming this site and my photography/storm chasing operation by diverting traffic, viewers, engagement and income. "Credit" and "exposure" does not benefit this site or my operation, rather they threaten my ability to cover my operating expenses. Please read my full explanation for this notice here.
Before continuing, check each box to agree to and acknowledge these two statements:
Click this button to finalize this acknowledgement:
This chase was a routine television assignment in my role as a cameraman. As a result, many of these don't have a dedicated chase log.
This chase was only recorded in my mileage reports, no detailed log was written for it.
