Local & State Headlines

Truck slams into pump

J.D. Sumner

ARMENA — A test drive of a dump truck ended when its driver crashed into a gasoline pump trying to avoid a pileup on a busy Albany-area highway, authorities said.

James Anthony Newman, 36, of Amarillo, Texas, was cited for several traffic offenses including driving with defective equipment after the Mack dump truck he was driving left the roadway on U.S. Highway 82 West and went into pump number five at the Doublegate EE-ZZ Mart Tuesday afternoon, Senior Trooper Don Berger with the Georgia State Patrol said.

“He said he was traveling east and felt his brakes go so he moved off the highway and into the gas station,” Berger said.

The truck clipped a curb and crashed into a gas pump.

The crash severed the pump from the gas lines, forcing store employees to shut down the pumps completely, but not before gallons of fuel spilled into the parking lot.

Fire officials responded, as did Lee County Sheriff’s Deputies and the GSP, and secured the scene.

The truck, which was filled with scrap metal, required a special wrecker to be towed away from the site.

“He’s lucky that he managed to get that truck off the roadway and into the pump without killing someone or starting a fire,” Berger said.

Berger said that Newman told him he was test-driving the truck when the crash happened.

No one was injured in the crash.

Store officials estimated the total damage at around $20,000, authorities said.

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