Big rig chase on I-81 spanned 3 states, ended in Franklin County Pa.

A Mississippi man was driving a tractor-trailer that led police on a three-state chase that ended Monday morning with the big rig stuck in the median of Interstate 81 near Greencastle, Pa., authorities said.

Thomas L. McNeel, 42, of Pontotoc, Miss., was identified as the driver of the tractor-trailer, which was hauling furniture, according to Maryland State Police.


McNeel was taken to Franklin County (Pa.) Jail following his arraignment before Magisterial District Judge Duane Cunningham on 42 charges, including fleeing and attempting to elude police, possession of narcotics, driving under the influence of alcohol or a controlled substance, reckless endangerment, resisting arrest and several traffic violations.

Cunningham set McNeel's bail at $250,000.

"Bridgman Trucking" and "Pontotoc, MS" were on the side of the tractor-trailer's purple cab. No one answered two phone calls Monday afternoon to a number for Bridgman Trucking that was supplied by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

The incident began at 8:22 a.m. when Berkeley County, W.Va., 911 received a report of a reckless driver in a tractor-trailer at the 1 1/2 mile marker north of the Virginia border, according to a dispatcher in West Virginia.

It ended after the truck got hung up on a culvert in the median of I-81 near Greencastle, where the driver was taken into custody, Washington County Sheriff Douglas Mullendore said.

"No one got hurt, but it could have been a very disastrous situation," Mullendore said.

If the tractor-trailer had succeeded in getting into the southbound lanes heading north, it could have been deadly, he said.

"There's no question that had he made it into the southbound lane, he would have killed people," Mullendore said.

A knoll in the median near Greencastle's Exit 5 would have prevented southbound drivers from seeing the tractor-trailer in time to avoid it, he said.

The tractor-trailer caused several accidents on I-81 in West Virginia and Maryland, and swerved toward police cars and officers on foot, officials said.  

No injuries were reported in West Virginia, Maryland or Pennsylvania, authorities in those states said.

"It was an extremely scary and dangerous situation. I don't know how else to describe it," said Sgt. Dan Steerman, a 15-year veteran with the Berkeley County Sheriff's Department.

Steerman said he pulled his cruiser alongside the right shoulder of northbound I-81 near the Spring Mills exit to wait for the northbound tractor-trailer.

"He swerved off the road and tried to hit my cruiser. He missed me," Steerman said.

Not knowing whether the driver had a medical problem, Steerman said he called for emergency medical services and firefighters to stand by and to notify Washington County authorities of the situation.

Steerman said the big rig didn't hit any vehicles in West Virginia, but ran several off the road, causing at least three accidents. One of those accidents was near the exit for City Hospital and another was south of the Spring Mills exit, he said.

Steerman and two other officers with the Berkeley County Sheriff's Department pursued the tractor-trailer in three cruisers, Steerman said.