[url]http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2003/jul/03/070310851.html[url]

July 03, 2003

Trucker dead; residents escape serious injury in Mesquite crash
By KEN RITTER
ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAS VEGAS (AP) - A truck driver died, but residents escaped serious injury early Thursday when a tractor-trailer hauling rolls of paper plunged off Interstate 15 and exploded in a neighborhood in Mesquite, authorities said.

One home was reduced to cinders and two others were damaged.

The residents of the demolished house were on vacation and not at home when the big rig careened off the freeway, officials and a next-door neighbor said.

"We were watched over, no doubt about it," said Mark Tichenor, whose next door neighbors returned hours later to find their home destroyed by the 4:45 a.m. crash and fire.

"Whatever kept that 18-wheeler from taking out my whole house," Tichenor said. "It took their house, but not ours."

The owner of the destroyed home declined an interview.

Tichenor, 39, said he and his wife awoke with a 1,025-pound roll of newsprint caving in the wall next to their bed and bricks spewing from a block wall after the trailer plowed into his backyard. Brick shards whizzed like shrapnel through windows and pocked interior walls. Another paper roll landed on the roof.

Tichenor said and he and his wife and two of their four children received bruises and some cuts that required stitches. A son, Kyle, 15, was hit in the forehead with a brick while he slept. None were hospitalized.

Another home was singed by fire, but no one inside was hurt, Clark County fire spokesman Bob Leinbach said. Firefighters from Mesquite, Clark County and nearby Beaver Dam, Ariz., fought the fire.

The tractor-trailer was traveling south toward Las Vegas when it drove off the interstate, plunged down an embankment and through a block wall, Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Angie Wolff said.

Leinbach said firefighters found the body of the driver in the charred remains of the truck's cab. He was not immediately identified.

Wolff said the cause of the crash was being investigated.

Mesquite is a small resort city near the Arizona and Utah state lines, about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

I hate to admit it, but this one may be a case of DWT (driving while tired)  In the incident in Kansas las week a car forced a truck over a bridge (truck dodging dumbass in car and trucker and wife die because of it)  This one, we will have to see what the report says.  Fortunately, I work for an employer that puts her drivers before appointments.  This one may have been in a hurry to get home for the holidays.  He could have had a steer tire blowout (tends to yank the wheel out of your hand) could have fallen asleep or been dodging a car that was drunk/falling asleep.  I am sorry for the loss of the driver, but glad that no one else was hurt.