A Pennsylvania couple escaped serious injury after their RV rolled over on the Thruway in Ontario County, New York, this past weekend.
If you looked at the photo above before learning the couple survived almost unharmed, you might think that just couldn’t be.
State Police say it happened around 2 p.m. Saturday near Exit 43 in Manchester. Troopers say traffic suddenly slowed after a vehicle in the left lane missed its exit and came to a quick stop, causing a chain reaction.
The RV, driven by 42-year-old Travis Hileman of Altoona, swerved to the shoulder and overturned due to its weight. His passenger, 36-year-old Samantha Hileman, was briefly trapped underneath.
Both were taken to Strong Memorial Hospital for evaluation.
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RVT1221b
Wow – that sure doesn’t look survivable. Interesting to know the rest of the story on how they got out and what the structural material of the Rv is or was. Glad they are both safe and not suffering too much financial loss. Heavy traffic and following too close by everyone makes it difficult to adjust to a safe following distance with a vehicle which takes a lot room to stop or even slow to a crawl. Also the Rv driver didn’t involve anyone else in this incident.
There is a whole video on YouTube interviewing the couple from the RV. Several cars, trying to avoid the pileup in the inner and middle lanes, swerved in front of them, and he swerved onto the shoulder to try and avoid them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSH_hurAM6o&t=5s&ab_channel=RVingwithAndrewSteele
Thank you Larry – Appreciate it.
Swerving in a motorhome not recommended.
Amen. Truer words just don’t exist.
Thank you for the news, RV Travel. I happened upon this on a Newmar owners Facebook page. They are full-timers. It was a Newmar RV towing a Chevrolet something or other. According to the listed information, all in the RV was also a total loss (find it a bit hard to believe that NOTHING could be salvaged). There is a gofund page for the couple at https://gofund.me/d24e4a98. Have a great day and safe travels!
I wonder if the person that slammed on their brakes in the left lane because they were going to miss an exit will have some legal culpability in this.
Over the years, we’ve missed a few exits. Rather than causing a freeway pileup with drastic actions in an attempt to make the exit, we continue on to the next exit and circle back.
I don’t know what’s happening to drivers nowadays Mikal , it’s happening more and more people are stopping on the freeway or backing up on the freeways, people use common sense and go to the next exit and cross over and go back to your exit, it’s not that hard and most exits aren’t that far apart especially when it comes to safety, maybe common sense is non existent in some people.