Gif: Rhine Police Department
Rhine is a small town in Louisiana with a population of just over 7,300 people. Interstate Highway I-10 serves the Rhine with a single exit near the city’s northern border. Late Thursday morning, someone drove the tractor off the embankment near the exit.
A brief video of the incident begins with the tractor-trailer in question falling down an embankment. The truck then pulls off the end onto a four-lane roadway that runs under the Interstate. The semi-trailer rushes along the boulevard without hitting another car and leaving behind a plume of dirt and smoke. A tractor with a trailer flies out of the frame where it stopped on a private property where the semi-trailer caught fire.
The Rhine Volunteer Fire Department, headquartered less than a quarter of a mile from the scene, responded to the accident and extinguished the fire. During the unplanned trip, the driver suffered minor injuries. The Rhine Police Department, based at the same location as the volunteer firefighters, is investigating the incident.
Interstate 10 in the southeast seems to be more dangerous than usual lately. Earlier today there was another incident on the other side of the state line in Mississippi. There, a passenger truck crashed into a camper. The truck driver was critically injured and the Interstate was closed to traffic so that a medical helicopter could airlift the driver.
In January, a truck carrying seven new BMWs crashed into a bridge on I-10. The BMWs caught fire and the wreckage damaged the bridge itself. It took more than nine hours for the bridge to be cleared, re-inspected to ensure the safety of travelers, and reopened to traffic. Although the bridge has been reopened, the damage to the bridge will not be repaired until April.
If I were a local, I would hope that Interstate 10 could have a calm and uneventful month.