Hokes Bluff, AL - Highway 278 in Hokes Bluff has been the scene for several bad wrecks during the past year and a half. When the latest two trucks collided in Etowah County on Tuesday one of the drivers died in the mangled metal. James Beechum of Piedmont traveled the road through Hokes Bluff many times as do a lot of other truck drivers. It's not the first bad crash to happen here.

Hokes Bluff Police Chief Mitchell Hill explains, "In the last year or year and a half we've had three major accidents that I know of."

They're not all fatal but all three involved large trucks that lost control on the curvy two-lane road. As many as one hundred 18-wheelers roll along Highway 278 every day. It's a short cut to several destinations, and it's on a long list of roads scheduled to be upgraded to four lanes.

Hill says, "it's supposed to make this a long sweeping curve and cut out some of the hills on up the road toward Hokes Bluff where we've had a lot of the accidents."

Hill believes wrecks like these could be prevented if the expansion is moved up. That's a decision that must be made by the state.

He wants the Department of Transportation "to look at it a little closer and if they could push up the date we'd appreciate it."

The driver of the second truck involved in Tuesday's crash escaped with only minor injuries. In fact he helped provide equipment for rescue workers to remove overturned logs from the crash sight.

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