Tractor-trailer damaged, disabled in unusual accident in Allegheny Township

Allegheny Township police Chief Duane Fisher just about has seen it all in his 20-plus years responding to vehicle accidents.

That is, until he responded about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday to a 911 report of a tractor-trailer incident along South Leechburg Hill Road.

A major malfunction caused the trailer to crush inward and disable the truck. The driver was unhurt.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Fisher said of the accident that resulted in a nearly three-hour road closure.

Fisher said the rig was enroute to Minnesota, traveling west on the Route 56 Bypass with an almost 40,000-pound load of steel coils from ATI in Vandergrift, when the trailer’s stabilizers, known as landing gear, apparently dropped and caught onto the roadway surface.

“The resulting forces ripped the trailer apart,” Fisher said. “You could see the lights ahead from the open trailer.”

The driver worked with local emergency responders to return the product back to ATI in Vandergrift.

Courtesy of Duane Fisher

A red traffic light is visible through the interior of a damaged tractor-trailer Tuesday night on South Leechburg Hill Road in Allegheny Township.

Allegheny Township resident Teresa Keil was traveling on South Leechburg Hill Road after the accident, She said the sight of the damaged trailer left her perplexed.

“We were shocked to see the trailer of the truck bent in half,” Keil said. “We were dumbfounded trying to figure out what happened, as there was no other damage that we could see and people were walking around.”

The damaged tractor-trailer remained parked Wednesday near ATI in Vandergrift, an employee of Kochka Towing said.

It’s unclear what will happen to the trailer.

The driver was provided with another tractor-trailer and went back to work Tuesday night, police said.

Volunteers from the Markle and Allegheny Township fire departments assisted police at the scene.