KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A person is facing charges after crashing into one of the Tennessee Department of Transportation's trucks on Friday.
According to a press release from TDOT, a HELP Truck was hit on I-40 West around a mile from the Watt Road exit in Knox County at around 7 a.m. The driver of the truck was pulling up to help with a disabled vehicle on the side of the road, and the truck was hit from behind.
TDOT said the car that hit the truck was driving on the shoulder, and the Tennessee Highway Patrol reported the driver had fallen asleep before the crash. The driver is facing charges including reckless endangerment, having an unregistered vehicle and improper use of registration.
"We see folks that are driving distracted. They're not paying attention to the most important task that they have, and that's being behind the wheel," said Mark Nagi, a spokesperson for TDOT. "Our HELP Truck drivers are out there each and every day across the state trying to assist motorists who have broken down on the side of the road ... And the last thing that our HELP Truck drivers should have to worry about is oncoming vehicles because somebody is not 100% on that task at hand."
The crash marks the fourth time this month that one of TDOT's trucks has been hit, according to the release. Tennessee data shows that distracted drivers account for around one in every 15 crashes. The data also shows a crash involving a distracted driver happens around once every 26 minutes, on average.
The state took action to protect people on the side of the road by passing the "Move Over Law," which requires drivers to pull into an adjacent lane of traffic, when safe to do so when an emergency vehicle is parked on the side of the road.
“We engineer our roads to be safe as possible,” said Butch Eley in the release, the TDOT Commissioner. “But there’s no amount of engineering that can change driver behavior. Everyone must slow down, move over, and pay attention.”