Truck driver dead at wheel while partner asleep in cab

• By Don Jacobs
• Posted January 26, 2010 at noon , updated January 26, 2010 at 3:21 p.m.

KNOXVILLE - The driver of a tractor-trailer rig sat dead this morning behind the wheel at the intersection of Merchants Drive and Central Avenue Pike as his partner slept in the cab.
"The driver had indicated earlier in the morning that he was not feeling well when he pulled off the roadway and parked his vehicle," said Knoxville Police Department spokesman Darrell DeBusk.
DeBusk did not say when the driver, identified as Tommy Wilson, 71, of Missouri City, Texas, pulled over, but an employee of the Pilot Corp. store, 100 Merchants Drive, said videotape revealed the driver first came into the business at 4 a.m. and bought bottled water.
For hours the rig was parked on the shoulder of the road at the intersection as morning rush hour traffic maneuvered around the rig.
An employee of the Tennessee Department of Transportation entered the Pilot about 9 a.m. and asked if anyone had checked on the truck driver slumped over the wheel of the rig, said Meghann McCulley, 32, a cashier at the Pilot.
"We had been too busy to check on it," McCulley said. "Besides, truckers stop here all the time, so it wasn't unusual."
McCulley said the female TDOT employee "banged on the window and woke his partner who was in the cab sleeping."
DeBusk said the TDOT HELP truck driver called E-911 at 9:18 a.m. to alert authorities of the death.
"It appears the driver died as a result of a medical condition," DeBusk said.
Wilson was hauling a load of paint from Virginia to Texas, DeBusk said.
"After the body was removed, his partner jumped in and drove the truck off," McCulley said. "I don't think I could do that.
"I've had the heebie-jeebies since then."
More details as they develop online and in Wednesday's News Sentinel.
© 2010, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.

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That sux, I hope I don't go while at work, but right now it looks that way...sux.

FM

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Living Life On the Dark Side.... If Only It Could've been Sooner.... oh well, better late than never, Thanks BJ...LOL

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Wow that is so sad, did the man have any living family, gee that is to bad, I am surprised that he was not checked out for a medical condition on his last physical.

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Life is what you make of it, so make the best of it.

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You just never know, I've seen a few people go this way, some at work and others at home. A friend of ours did just this in his personal car, went out to warm it up before heading to work, they found him a short time later slumped over the wheel.

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Living Life On the Dark Side.... If Only It Could've been Sooner.... oh well, better late than never, Thanks BJ...LOL

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We,ve had a few drivers over the years that were "napping" in the yard and upon further inspection were found to be exspired.It is sad.

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ST STFU

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That is really sad, a good friend of mine pulled a driver from his truck who was thought to be napping. Very sad.

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