N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper A.M. Paterno said the sides of the truck “just peeled away” as it careened down a ravine and into an embankment, overturning.

“It looked like a flat-bed trailer by the time it stopped,” Paterno said this morning.

The truck’s cab remained intact, however, and the first person arriving at the scene just south of Webb Road found 1-year-old Tonaya Trusty and her parents, Ulanda and Jerome, inside.

Paterno said the toddler suffered head injuries, and a medical helicopter flew her to Carolinas Medical Center. She had improved to serious condition this morning in the intensive care unit, according to the hospital.

Ulanda Trusty, 32, who was four months pregnant, with her second child, was in stable condition this morning at NorthEast Medical Center. Jerome Trusty was treated at NorthEast and released.

Paterno said the child was not riding in a child restraint seat, and he did not think her parents were wearing seat belts.

The Trustys were moving from Baltimore to Atlanta and had all their possessions in the truck.

About 11:40 a.m. Thursday, Ulanda Trusty was driving south on I-85 about 55 miles per hour. Just south of the Webb Road interchange, Ulanda Trusty apparently swerved off the road momentarily, Paterno said.

As she brought the truck back onto the road, however, the load in the back shifted, causing the truck to swerve off the right side again.

This time, the rear of the truck clipped a guard rail, knocking the vehicle out of control. The truck tumbled “down a ravine and into an embankment and overturned,” Paterno said.

The grass underneath the truck caught fire, though the vehicle didn’t burn.

The body of the truck fell apart as the truck crashed 262 feet — almost the length of a football field — from the guard rail to the embankment.

The Trustys’ possessions — all broken or torn apart — scattered along the highway.

The accident blocked one south-bound lane of I-85 for about 30 minutes, Paterno said.