By Shelley Smith
ssmith@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Robin Hayes, flown to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte last Thursday after she lost control of her car and drove under an 18-wheeler, is in fair condition.
According to N.C. State Highway Patrol Trooper C.J. Doty and witnesses, Hayes, 34, of China Grove, was in the right-hand southbound lane of exit 68 and ran off the shoulder. A witness told Doty the car jerked to the left and drove under the 18-wheeler. The rear tandems of the trailer went right over the car, and the impact sent it back into the exit ramp, Doty said.
Monday Doty said he has spoken to Hayes’ father and several witnesses, and a late-night call Thursday from one last witness was the last piece of the puzzle, he said.
The witness, who was two cars in front of Hayes, with a car in front of him, said there was a five-gallon bucket in the road, which they all swerved to avoid.
“The woman in front of Hayes swerved at the last minute,” Doty said, and “left Hayes right there on it without much time to react.”
Doty said Hayes swerved to the right of the bucket, off the shoulder of exit 68, and overcorrected.
Doty was on his way to a different wreck in southern Rowan County, only 30 seconds ahead of Hayes’ accident, he said.
“When I pulled up I noticed the bucket in the road and it struck me as odd,” he said, noting he and other troopers “get calls about everything,” and he’s even removed a washer and dryer from the interstate before.
“When that (witness) told me that, everything came together,” he said.
The driver of the tractor-trailer truck, Gabriel Medina, 42 and of Texas, was able to keep control of the truck and trailer, moving to the shoulder of I-85. The trailer dragged for about a quarter of a mile, and left nearly 1-inch-deep indentions in the road.
Hayes’ legs were pinned underneath the dash of her four-door Oldsmobile Aurora. Emergency responders had to cut the driver’s side door off, the roof of the car, and cut the dash in half to get Hayes out of the car and to the hospital.
Doty said there was no indication of impairment “whatsoever” and Hayes nor Medina will be charged.