Driver of semi suffers stroke, manages to veer semi away from traffic

PHILADELPHIA (WTXF) - He was in a nasty wreck on I95 last week. Friends of the man behind the wheel of the truck say he purposely avoided hitting other vehicles and saved lives, despite having a massive stroke.

Ray Jones' view for nearly two decades has been sitting in a big rig, looking out on the roadway through a windshield, driving a truck a 100,000 miles a year.

FOX 29 caught up with him in New York. He spends a lot of time alone.

He didn't exactly love it when the news crew watched him drive, but he agreed to it, if it might help his friend.

Kevin O'Donnell, a 48-year-old from Chalfont, was the man behind the wheel of a horrific tractor-trailer crash in Bensalem. Kevin's semi drove off a ramp and plunged onto I-95 below, dumping 1200 beer kegs all over the highway.

"I was horrified. I actually had to pull over. I was pretty distraught," Jones said.

He said Kevin suffered a stroke during the morning rush hour, but still found a way to veer his semi off the interstate and up a ramp away from traffic.

"If he didn't have his wits about himself, he could have just plowed into morning rush hour traffic, going down the highway at those speeds," Jones explained.

In his condition, he hit the gas, his truck jumped the barrier and plunged to the interstate. Kevin's boss at Oak Ridge Transport in Harleysville said his injuries were severe.

"Torn spleen, he had a collapsed lung, his ribs were shattered, both sides of his pelvis were broken," Brian Jackson, Kevin's boss, named some of O'Donnell's injuries.

Even worse, Kevin only started working for the company the week before the accident. His insurance hadn't kicked in yet.

"It's gonna cost a lot of money and he might not be able to work ever again," Jackson said.

Jackson started a Go Fund Me page, knowing Kevin is truly lucky to be alive.

Ray said Kevin, a single man with no children, is deserving of any consideration for help.

"A lot of truckers will have accidents. Sometimes from faults of their own. This was no fault of his own. If anything, he saved lives," Jones said.

Anyone can contribute to Kevin O'Donnell's GoFundMe here.