UPDATE: Driver Identified after Fatal Crash on I-80 Near Grand Island

By: Megan Johnson - Email

Updated: Fri 8:57 PM, Mar 08, 2013

I-80 is back open after westbound lanes were closed because of an accident this morning near Grand Island.

Authorities say the driver of a pickup 47-year-old Jearol Garrett of Redding California is dead and the driver of semi was injured in the fiery crash.

The accident happened just east of the Highway 2 exit in Hamilton County.

Giltner Fire officials say both vehicles were engulfed in flames when they arrived.

Giltner Fire Chief Bradley Consbruck says the wind and cardboard burning from inside the semi trailer made clean up difficult.

"The cardboard is kind of like a hay bale fire, you have to break it apart and really put it out, it's just tough stuff," says Consbruck. "It will sit there and smolder if you don't work with it."

The State Patrol reopened one westbound lane around 11 a.m. while clean up continued.

NSP says the Garrett was eastbound when it drifted into the median and then into the west bound lanes striking the semi head on.

They say the driver of the semi, a man from Georgia, was taken to the hospital who was treated and released.

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