According to the Highway Patrol, Vince Campbell had been trying to clear the tangled lines when another vehicle traveling southbound clipped the hanging wire that struck and killed him.
An Ohio man who stopped to help a truck driver whose tractor-trailer was tangled in some downed telephone lines was killed when he was struck by the wires, officials said.
Vance Owen Campbell, 54, was driving in Crane Township on Wednesday when he saw the truck become entangled in some low-hanging telephone lines that had been damaged from an earlier traffic crash, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, People reported.
Campbell had been standing on the top of the tractor-trailer trying to assist the semi driver, Timothy Webber, 60, of Dayton, clear the lines when another semi-trailer truck driven by John Weber, 40, of Wauseon, struck the low-hanging lines, which then hit and killed Campbell, the Crescent News reported.
The incident closed U.S. 127 between County Road 144 and Ohio 111, causing major traffic delays on U.S. 127, which was reopened at 7 p.m.
Lt. Jonathon Gray, commander of the Highway Patrol’s Van Wert division, used the day’s tragedy as a reminder to others on what and what not to do.
“If you happen to get out of your vehicle due to a breakdown or some other reason, make sure you turn on hazards,’ Gray said. “If the vehicle is disabled in the roadway, we always ask people to don’t stand near it, to get away from it, turn the hazards on and try to protect life at that point. And, whenever a pedestrian’s on the road it’s really hard for traffic to see them sometimes."
