It looked like a scene straight out of an action movie, but for drivers on I-77 South late Friday night, it was terrifyingly real.
Just before 11 p.m. on November 28, a massive overhead sign gantry near Exit 3 (Arrowood Road) came crashing down onto the highway after an impaired driver slammed into one of its support columns. The twisted metal pinned a vehicle underneath, trapping its driver inside a crumpled car beneath tons of steel.
Charlotte Fire Department crews worked frantically for over an hour to cut the driver free. Both the trapped motorist and another person were rushed to the hospital with serious injuries. As of Sunday evening, no updates on their conditions have been released.
According to the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), the driver who caused the crash was impaired. The impact was so violent that the entire sign structure buckled and fell across multiple lanes, instantly shutting down all southbound traffic just south of the city.
For nearly seven hours, I-77 South was a parking lot. Detours funneled thousands of vehicles onto surface streets like Nations Ford Road and Arrowood, turning a typical Friday night into a logistical nightmare. The highway finally reopened around 5 a.m. Saturday, after NCDOT crews removed the mangled sign sections and inspected the remaining supports.
