Man Caught by TV Camera Sleeping at Wheel of Truck on Busy Highway Wakes Up, Causes Massive Crash Then Flees Scene
A man caught on camera sleeping and drooling over the wheel of his pick-up truck in the middle of the busy Buford Connector highway in Atlanta, Ga., awoke from his sleep, caused a massive crash then fled the scene in a bizarre incident on Saturday.
Liz Artz of Atlanta's Channel 2 Action News, which caught the entire incident on video, was one of the first persons to call 911 when they came across the man's truck stopped in a lane of traffic but still running.
Inside, the man was slumped over in sleep and drooling.
According to Channel 2, a team from the Georgia Department of Transportation's HERO unit came to the scene after Artz's 911 call and tried to revive the man and remove the key from the truck.
The driver woke up, however, and fought with the HERO worker briefly before dangerously speeding off, almost hitting the worker.
He later crashed into two cars triggering a five-car collision.
"It was really scary and I looked over and made sure Erica was OK," said Michael McKinnon's whose BMW was in the five-car smash up.
In the absence of Atlanta police who were still nowhere on the scene despite Channel 2's 911 call, the HERO worker tried stopping the man again and only managed to take his keys while he took off by climbing a tree and scaling a barbed wire fence.
The driver is still at large.