Police: New guardrail saved driver in truck accident

By Tarah Taylor

POSTED: 11:34 AM Dec 04 2012   UPDATED: 5:52 PM Dec 04 2012

Emergency workers say an Abingdon, Virginia woman is lucky to be alive this evening after a tractor-trailer overturned on her car today.

It happened a little after 9 a.m. Tuesday morning on State Route 91 just outside of Glade Spring. We're told the truck was hauling sawdust.

Virginia State Police troopers say a the truck came to rest on a guardrail that was just installed a few weeks ago, saving the truck from crushing the car and its driver, 31-year-old Courtney Berry.

Authorities say both drivers had to be extricated. We're told, it took about two and a half hours to get to Berry.

"The extrication was made more difficult simply because the truck was hauling cargo, thankfully nothing hazardous," said Washington County deputy director of emergency management Theresa Kingsley. "We did have the worry of combustion with the sawdust, we had to call in extra fire units. We had to offload some of the product before we could even access the passenger vehicle under it."

Emergency workers say they had to cut through the wall of the overturned trailer, then through the roof of the car to get to Courtney Berry.

We're told Berry is alert and doing well under the circumstances.

The truck driver, 43-year-old Donald Ray Bailey of Wise, is also expected to be okay. VSP says Bailey is being charged with reckless driving.