Authorities in North Carolina say that a semi truck driver died as he tried to keep his rig rolling after a devastating winter storm over the weekend.
After more than two feet of snow fell on parts of North Carolina, a truck driver got stuck along I-77 near the Jonesville exit around midday on Sunday, December 9.
Authorities say that the truck driver got out of his truck and got to work with a shovel to try to get back on the road.
“He exited the tractor and trailer and was using a snow shovel to clear the snow to get him back on the road, and after he had shoveled snow for quite a while … he went into cardiac arrest,” Yadkin County Emergency Services Director Keith Vestal told NPR.
.@NC_Governor: Unfortunately, the snow has turned into a nightmare and tragedy for some, claiming 2 lives. We mourn them and offer their loved ones our sympathies.
— NC Emergency Managem (@NCEmergency) December 10, 2018
The truck driver was taken to the hospital but he did not survive the heart attack. His identity has not yet been released.
Vestal says that he considers the truck driver’s death to be storm-related.
The truck driver was one of the three people who lost their lives to the storm. A motorist was killed in Matthews, North Carolina, when a tree fell on his vehicle. A woman in Haywood County also died after power outages caused the machine supplying her with oxygen to fail.
From midnight to 3 p.m. on Sunday, the North Carolina Highway Patrol responded to over 700 weather related crashes and 1,892 calls for service.