Semi flips of I-5 bridge

A semi truck flips off a bridge in Grants Pass… landing a wanted man in jail.

This was scene 2 a.m. Thursday morning at Grants Pass exit 58… *nats* hours later crews are still cleaning up this kang semi that flipped off I-5. “A truck climbed on the rail and fell over the bridge,” says Oregon Department of Transportation worker Bill Long.

“It’s a ball of wreckage. The trailers upside down,” comments bystander Kim Kilmer. Her husband drove by the wreck shortly after it happened. “He goes, ‘Don’t try to go to work under the under pass, because you won’t make it to work,'” continues Kilmer.

Bill Long says the truck, filled with 40 thousand pounds of frozen strawberries, was heading north when he’s told the driver fell asleep, losing control of the vehicle.

“It will take a good portion of the day [to clean up], plus more environmental cleanup because he spilled his oil diesel for hundreds of feet,” says Long. Though he doesn’t know exactly how much this accident will cost, he estimates it’s in the thousands, especially considering the damage done to the off ramp guard rail.

The driver: 28 year old Parmjit Singh. Refused medical attention, that’s when Oregon State Police got suspicious. Turns out Singh’s a wanted man. The state of California had a warrant out for him for forgery. He was taken to Josephine County Jail. Despite that, Long – who’s seen wrecks like this before – says it still be could the man’s day, “He’s very fortunate that he walked away.”

Singh is cited with careless driving, driving uninsured, and failure to drive within a lane. Jail personnel tell us California declined to extradite the driver, so he was released.