VALDOSTA – Two semi-truck accidents, one on Tuesday morning, the other on Wednesday, slowed traffic and closed lanes on southbound Interstate 75 this week.

According to Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk, the truck driver on Tuesday blew a right front tire between 8-9 a.m. and ran off the highway lane into the ditch and turned over. “They got him out and he was coherent but the truck was destroyed,” Sheriff Paulk said. “He was hauling empty cardboard boxes for watermelons.”

Sheriff Paulk left before the truck driver was taken from the scene but remarked that he did not think he had any “life-threatening injuries.”

Barbara Touchton Price was on the scene Tuesday morning. “I went inside the cab,” she told Valdosta Today. “The man’s hand was bleeding and I had got paper towels from my car so I got some on his hand and talk(ed) to him, I have few scratches but I’m sure nothing as bad as this young man has. Just glad God put me there and I had some training. My son is a truck driver. I would hope someone would do the same thing for him.”

According to Price, and Georgia State Patrol Trooper First Class Pritchett, the driver was life-flighted from the scene and did suffer a broken bone.

The Wednesday morning Interstate 75 accident occurred just before 3 a.m.

Trooper Pritchett from GSP Post #31 said they received the call at 3 a.m. and that the accident involved two semi-trucks traveling southbound.

“A semi truck was following too closely and the driver was interior distracted,” according to Trooper Pritchett, adding that upon discovering a collision was imminent, the driver attempted swerving to the left, destabilizing its load, prior to striking the lead semi truck on the rear end.

“The truck came to uncontrolled rest overturned on to the driver side blocking all three lanes with its load of wooden pallets,” Trooper Pritchett continued. “The road was blocked until 7:53 a.m. Wednesday morning.”

Trooper Pritchett said that no one was injured in the second accident but the rear driver was charged with following too close and distracted driving.