WSAZ Investigates | Danger at the Divide: Woman captures video of semi-truck backing up ...

A semi-truck backing up on a heavily traveled interstate corridor highlights ongoing safety fears at a notoriously complex West Virginia interchange, wsaz.com reported.

Emily Boyd watched from her 12th-story office window on Wednesday as a semi-truck came to a dead stop at the I-64/I-77 split in Charleston before reversing against oncoming traffic. Drivers behind the rig slammed on brakes and swerved to avoid a collision on the bridge, which carries some of the heaviest traffic volume in the state.

Drivers navigating through Charleston face a rapid split requiring decisions toward Parkersburg or Beckley. Boyd told wsaz.com that she initially thought the truck had crashed into the concrete barrier before realizing it was backing up while other motorists flew by and honked.

Safety Changes and Police Response at the Charleston Split

The incident adds fresh urgency to WSAZ’s ongoing investigative series “Danger at the Divide,” which tracks a series of severe crashes involving vehicles scaling or breaching the interstate barrier.

Last week, the West Virginia Department of Transportation lowered the speed limit through the interchange from 60 mph to 50 mph. This week, crews began applying a high-friction surface treatment designed to prevent vehicles from sliding out of their lanes.

Charleston police previously told wsaz.com that officers would maintain heightened patrols around the split to curb excessive speeds and prevent erratic maneuvers. However, police noted that issuing a citation for backing up on an interstate requires an officer to witness the violation firsthand in the area.

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For local residents like Boyd, who overlooks the interchange daily, the risks hit close to home. She described having difficult conversations with her children about the dangers of the split.

“I don’t want my kid driving across it, I don’t like when their buses go on it. It was definitely a wake-up call for me,” Boyd told wsaz.com. “I tell them about these crashes and to drive slowly, and to not drive between semis. And it makes me rethink some things and the way that I drive.”