JACKSON TOWNSHIP - A two-mile stretch of Route 147 was closed for six hours Tuesday after a tractor-trailer truck hauling lumber flipped onto its side, spilling its cargo over the highway a few miles north of Herndon.
According to state police at Stonington, George Frymoyer, 69, of Mount Pleasant Mills, was driving a 2003 Freightliner north on Route 147 at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday when the truck traveled onto the berm of the highway just north of Herndon Bypass Road, causing Frymoyer to lose control.
Frymoyer was wearing a seat belt and was not injured.
Jerry Lauver, a co-owner of Ivan P. Lauver and Son, Inc., Mount Pleasant Mills, which owns the truck, was at the scene directing the removal of thousands of pieces of wooden slats. He said the truck was enroute from a lumber yard in Herndon to a bed slat processing plant in Port Trevorton.
A bulldozer was used to push the slats to the side of the highway and Sunbury Motors sent two heavy-duty tow trucks to remove the trailer, which was lying across both lanes. The back section was hanging over the guard rail on the west side of the highway, hundreds of feet above the Susquehanna River.
Traffic was detoured onto Brush Valley Road, Route 890, Dornsife Mountain Road and Route 225.
Initially, PennDOT expected the highway to be closed between Herndon Bypass Road in Jackson Township and Boyles Run Road in Lower Augusta Township overnight while crews removed the lumber; however, the highway was opened to traffic at 7:35 p.m.
The incident is under investigation.