No one knows exactly why a man driving a construction truck on I-66 west crashed smack into the striped barrier at the Stringfellow Road exit. But the impact killed the driver, Thomas Mark Dawson, 38, of Stafford.
THE TRAGEDY occurred June 8 at 1:57 p.m., when the barrier preventing motorists from exiting there, except during rush hour, was in place. According to Virginia State Trooper L.B. Cameron, Dawson was driving a Ford F-550 loaded with fuel. He worked for the Panther Corporation, delivering fuel to construction sites, and was on his way back to his shop in Manassas.
"The truck did not burn or explode," said Virginia State Police spokesman, Sgt. J. L. Doss. "But the force [of the impact] just crushed the driver within the cab." He said Dawson was killed due to blunt-force trauma.
"The severity of the crash was such that the vehicle basically came apart — it tore the truck into pieces," said Doss. "It's been described as one of the worst crashes that some of the firemen had seen in awhile."
The accident shut down the left lanes on both sides of I-66, with the traffic backups continuing into rush hour. Doss said the lanes were closed because of the amount of debris strewn around from the crash and all the emergency equipment on the scene.
Cameron said there were no witnesses to the accident and it's "unclear as to why [Dawson] drifted into that barrier. There were no skid or brake marks on the road." She said he was wearing a seatbelt and did not appear to be speeding.
As a matter of routine, she said, a blood-toxicology test was performed on Dawson and the results are still pending. Therefore, said Cameron, drugs or alcohol haven't yet been ruled out as a possible cause of the crash.