Wilkes Men Hurt in I-77 Wreck

Two brothers from Wilkesboro were airlifted to the hospital after a crash yesterday on Interstate 77 in Huntersville. Authorities said a cement truck rear-ended a pickup truck, and the truck slammed into the tractor trailer in front of it near exit 23/Gilead Road. The two men in the pickup truck, 60-year-old Bill Ellis and 55-year-old Glenn Ellis, had to be flown to Carolinas Medical Center with serious injuries. Meanwhile, I-77 southbound had to be shut down for about two hours while officers investigated and crews cleaned up the wreckage.

Troopers said roughly 10 minutes before the horrible wreck there was a minor crash on the side of the road that brought traffic to a standstill. They said while the tractor trailer and the green pickup were stopped, the driver of the cement truck was looking at the accident scene and didn’t stop. Rescuers had to cut the brothers out of the pickup. The men were pinned under the tractor trailer, and the bed of the tractor trailer was actually over the steering wheel.

The driver of the cement truck has been charged with reckless driving and failure to reduce his speed