I-77 fatality blamed on 'driver fatigue'

A Florida man died Thursday night apparently after unwittingly driving his car into the rear of a stopped tractor-trailer on Interstate 77 in Surry County.

“Just drove right into him,” Sgt. Fletcher Pipes of the N.C. Highway Patrol said Friday of the operator of the rig, a trucker from New York.

“Came up behind him and went into him — never hit the brakes,” Pipes said.

“We suspect driver fatigue.”

Darkness also might have been a causative factor for the collision that occurred about 10:45 p.m. Thursday. It happened near Mile Marker 96 of I-77 in the vicinity of Beulah Road (State Route 1345).

Robert Lee McGriff, 50, of Jacksonville, Florida, was northbound on the Interstate, the lone occupant of a 2021 Acura passenger car, according to accident report information from the Highway Patrol.

McGriff came upon a work zone on the interstate.

“And they had traffic stopped,” Sgt. Pipes said of highway crews. This was due to workers having to string power lines across the roadway.

The car driven by McGriff plowed into the rear of the stopped 2022 Freightliner tractor-trailer manned by Sirojiddin Ibodov, 49, of Berkeley, New York.

Ibodov was not injured.

It is not known exactly how fast the car was travelling at the time of the collision, but heavy damages resulted.

This included a $40,000 estimate to the car, which Pipes said is considered to have been totaled, and $10,000 for the truck.

“The interstate was closed for several hours,” Pipes advised.

Heavy rescue equipment was brought in to free McGriff and clear the wreckage.

A large contingent of public safety personnel converged on the scene, including members of the Surry County EMS, Pine Ridge Volunteer Fire Department and others.

The Surry Sheriff’s Department provided traffic control, Pipes said.

Responding agencies remained on the scene until well into the morning hours on Friday.