FORT PAYNE, Ala (WHNT) — One person has minor injuries after an 18-wheeler overturned on Highway 35 near Fort Payne.
Fort Payne Police Department (FPPD) Officers on the scene said they believe the truck was moving at a high rate of speed on Highway 35 Northbound in Fort Payne when it flipped onto its side at the Joe’s Truck Stop wall.
The incident occurred Monday night not far from a News 19 crew that was working in the area.
The officers on the scene said the driver of the truck suffered minor injuries during the incident.
The Joes Truck Stop wall on Highway 35 was built in the 1950s to help protect homes from speeding vehicles. The Alabama Department of Transportation is working with Fort Payne and city officials to change a wall. The wall was built so that trucks do not hit the homes on highway 35 where a truck flipped over.
“The trucks come down the hill and they don’t know that there’s a 90-degree curve and so they don’t realize that they need to slow down quicker,” said Jodie Maxin, a Fort Payne Resident who owns a home at the corner. “We know just before the accident happens and we just start running towards the door. We know what’s going to happen because we can hear the difference.”
ALDOT is said to replace the wall with an emergency truck stop ramp. Mayor Brian Baine supports the idea, even if it means that some homes and local businesses like Fosters’ Training Facility, have to move to a safer location.
“I went to ALDOT two years ago and asked them to take the money that they were going to spend on the truck rest-a-bed to do a feasibility study to straighten out joe’s truck stop,” explained Baine. “It would be great to get us an overpass over the train tracks which is badly needed here in the city of Fort Payne.”
During a recent Fort Payne city council work session, Marisa Foster, the owner of the training facility, says she was not properly informed of the city’s plans to move her facility that’s been a community staple for seven years.
“It’s not about me, it’s about the 150 members, the over twenty athletes playing college sports and citizens who lost a lot of weight working out at the gym,” said Foster. “We will need to go ahead and find somewhere else to go because I need to keep a roof over my head as well as all of the people that are with me.“
Foster told News 19 that mayor Baine nor members of city council have ever visited the gym.
