We’ve all had a “bad” day, right? Well, few have had it as bad as this driver did on Friday night.
Lance Vangel, a 51 year old driver from Sherman, Maine, was cruising north on I-95 Friday evening when he noticed a small fire in his truck, under the dashboard.
He pulled over at mile marker 251, north of the Medway exit, and grabbed his fire extinguisher thinking he could put the fire out.
Unfortunately, the fire turned into a blaze. Trooper Ben Campbell described the scene when he arrived, “By the time I got there, that thing was fully engulfed,” he said.
Luckily, Vangel was able to get his rig over to the side of the road where firefighters later extinguished the flames. He had no injuries, but traffic was at a standstill for about an hour. When things got moving again, Vangel hitched a ride from his coworker, Charles Hoyt.
Well, the story doesn’t end there. After the two left the scene of Vangel’s burnt truck and drove about 10 miles north, Hoyt’s rig ended up on the I-95 median. Ouch! Trooper Campbell, just finishing up at the truck fire, responded to the call and found both drivers standing in the southbound breakdown lane.
Once again, Vangel was not injured, but Hoyt had some minor cuts to his forehead and was taken to Houlton hospital.
Both trucks, owned by Scamp’s Transport of Houlton, were totaled. As for the drivers, well we can’t be certain, but odds are that Scamp’s Transport might be looking for a new driver, or two.