An early-morning tractor trailer crash on U.S. 52 shut down one lane of the highway for several hours Wednesday.

At 2:15 a.m. a tractor trailer loaded with harvest tobacco flipped over onto its side, sending the driver to the hospital and keeping clean-up crews on the scene for several hours while the highway was closed.

The wreck happened on U.S. 52 south, just prior to reaching Cook School Road, according to Surry County Emergency Services Director John Shelton.

“We are not sure whether or not he fell asleep. The trooper, Brian Jones, is still investigating. He (the driver) lost control overturned on its side, when down the road quite a bit and got up on an embankment where it came to a rest,” Shelton said.

He said the driver’s injuries were not life-threatening, but he will require surgery. The driver, Jeffrey Board, of Stanford, Ky. was taken to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center to be treated for his injuries.

The truck is leased through Lance Trucking Company of Henderson.

“We had to pump over 200 gallons of fuel off the saddle tanks, because the saddle tanks were damaged during the event, so Haz-Mat (Hazardous Materials Team) had to go out and do that.”

Shelton said the highway had to be closed down to one lane for about three hours in the early morning hours. Then the highway was shut down again Wednesday afternoon until the tobacco could be off-loaded onto another trailer.

“You take a risk of further damaging the cargo by trying to upright it, because usually what happens it that the trailer separates and comes apart. So they are unloading it as it sits and then they get the wreckage up after that,” Shelton said.

Contact Mondee Tilley at mtilley@mtairynews.com or at 719-1930.