Truck, SUV collide at intersection of 19-E and Broad Street

From Staff Reports

   Neither driver was injured in a traffic accident Monday afternoon when an SUV was struck by a tractor-trailer, according to Elizabethton Police Department PTL Carl Burrough.
   The tractor-trailer, which was driven by Kennis L. Fitch, 34, of Sitka, Ky., was traveling north on U.S. Highway 19E when it ran the redlight at the intersection with Broad Street, Burrough said. At that time, the tractor-trailer came into contact with a Mitsubishi SUV, driven by Bjarne Schou, 56, 1002 Circle Drive, which was traveling west on Broad Street.
   "The car was coming off Broad Street headed west and struck the truck in the right front wheel," Burrough said.
   Burrough speculated that Fitch may have been attempting to "beat the light" and was struck after the traffic signal for Schou's lane of travel turned green. One possible contributing factor to the accident, Burrough said, may be the size of the intersection of those two major roadways. "That intersection is so big," he said. "It's almost 140 feet from lane to lane."
   Fitch was charged with failure to yield. The truck he was driving was a flatbed truck and was carrying steel beams. The truck is part of the truck fleet for Crowd Transporters, Inc., of Betsy Layne, Ky.