"Truck flips on highway, driver lives"

"Photo: Kenneth Jackson's truck came to rest upside down in a ditch after flipping over on Highway 525 near Bayview.Jim Larsen/staff photoIn one of the more spectacular single-vehicle accidents in local memory, a big red pickup truck flipped over after leaving Highway 525 in Bayview on Friday. The 5:30 p.m. accident slowed traffic along the busy stretch of highway between Marshview and Bayview roads, as travelers gawked at the scene of an upside-down truck lying in a ditch pointed the opposite direction from which it had come.According to the State Patrol, the driver, Kenneth D. Jackson, Jr., 71, of Clinton was driving south on the highway in his big red 1986 Dodge pickup. He fell asleep at the wheel, the truck left the roadway to the right, struck an embankment, went airborne and rolled over, coming to rest on its top.Jackson suffered head injuries and was transported by ambulance to Whidbey General Hospital.Terry McCormick, 40, of Coupeville, was following Jackson down the highway and watched, stunned, as Jackson's pickup went out of control. I've never seen nothing like that, and I've raced stock cars, said McCormick. I thought he was dead. I called 911. But he's alive. I heard others talking to him. The extent of Jackson's injuries were not immediately known, but he was talking to the rescue workers.McCormick said he had followed Jackson's pickup since Freeland. He was driving fine, he said. Then like whoa!, he flipped over -- one flip. The truck flipped over a driveway, coming to rest on the other side, upside down and pointing north.Jackson was wearing his seatbelt. The vehicle was totaled. "

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