Four injuries and a roadway strewn with food were the results of a six- automobile pileup Monday on Interstate 26.Three people involved in the accident were transported to area hospitals with minor injuries, while another was airlifted via Wings Air Rescue to the Johnson City Medical Center for serious injuries, said a Johnson City Police Department report.

The wreck occurred at about 7 a.m. Monday and brought traffic in both east and westbound lanes to a standstill. The chain reaction was apparently triggered when a U.S. Food Service tractor-trailer driven by David C. Wheeler, 44, 809 Meaden Ave. Lowell, N.C., collided with a 2003 Nissan Sentra driven by Ben E. Brickman, 27, 149 Webb Road Piney Flats, Tenn., as they were negotiating a curve on I-26 causing both drivers to lose control of their vehicles.

As Wheeler and Brickman crossed the grassy median into traffic in the eastbound lane Wheeler’s U.S. Food Service tractor-trailer struck a 2002 model Mazda Protégé driven by Connie S. Hopson, 38, 139 Isenbery Drive, Gray, Tenn. Brickman’s Sentra landed on its top and collided with a 1993 model Toyota Camry driven by Beecher J. Welch III, 34, 1358 Dewey Ave, Kingsport, Tenn.

Wheeler’s U.S. Food Service tractor-trailer came to a rest, police said, where a 2003 model Chevrolet 1500 driven by Robert C. Minton, 46, R. #1 Box 1031 Dryden, Va. and a 2005 model Ford Focus driven by Kenneth C. Chambers, 68, 398 Goose Creek Road, Jefferson City, Tenn., collided with the truck’s trailer, spilling food all over I-26.
The wreck took place between the Gray and Boones Creek exits, causing traffic to become congested for over eight hours while workers cleaned up the spilled food from the U.S. Food Service truck and other wreckage.

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