Fork Stuck In Former Baked Bean Travel Route

Trucking Company Agrees To Stop Using Newport Highway

BY KEN LITTLE STAFF WRITER

Crashes on Newport Highway involving tractor-trailers hauling baked beans should now be a thing of the past.

After an ongoing series of wrecks along the two-lane section of roadway in Greene County, first responders spoke with officials of a trucking company that hauls the product from the Bush’s Beans plant in Jefferson County to Greeneville.

An agreement was reached with Fraley and Shilling, the trucking company that transports the beans.

Sheriff Wesley Holt said he met recently with company officials “and they are now using I-40 and I-81 to come to Greeneville.”

The most recent crash happened on Feb. 27 in the 7200 block of Newport Highway, when a northbound 18-wheeler carrying more than 1,000 gallon-size cans of baked beans ran off the road and overturned on its side, splitting open the side of the metal trailer and ejecting cans of beans into the front yard of a house. The driver suffered minor injuries. He was cited by the Tennessee Highway Patrol for failure to exercise due care.

The wreck caused one lane of Newport Highway to be closed for about 10 hours while the crash scene was cleaned up. The incident required the response of the THP, Greeneville-Greene County EMS, Tennessee Department of Transportation, Greene County Sheriff’s Department, cleanup crews, Greeneville-Greene County Office of Emergency Management and the Caney Branch Volunteer Fire Department, which helped detour traffic around the scene.

Caney Branch fire Chief Ryan Holt spoke afterward with the safety director of the Indiana-based trucking company.

“This is about the fifth