Fiery wreck on I-20 stalls through traffic for hours

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, April 13, 2010

A fiery collision on Interstate 20 just after 3 this morning tied up traffic for hours and caused another wreck that left two people injured.

At 3:19 a.m., Gus Atchinson, 18, 528 Russett Bend Road, Hoover, Ala., lost control of his 1998 Ford Contour and ran off the westbound side of the interstate, Sheriff Martin Pace said.

The car spun around before coming to a standstill across the westbound lanes with no lights, Pace said.

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The driver safely jumped from the vehicle just before a Volvo 18-wheeler driven by Robert Casey Stevenson, 48, 153 Poplar Woods Drive, Concord, N.C., broad-sided the car, the sheriff said.

The vehicles traveled together along the highway before bursting into flames, Pace said.

He said Stevenson, who was hauling NASCAR memorabilia, had a passenger. Neither was injured.

The wreck shut down east- and westbound lanes of traffic for a few minutes, and the westbound lane was closed to traffic until at least 9:30 this morning.

As the wreck was being cleaned up, two other vehicles collided in the westbound lanes, Warren County Volunteer Fire Coordinator Kelly Worthy said.

“It was almost at the same site of the other one,” said Worthy.

He said he had no details of the wreck but at least two people were taken to the hospital.