photo by: Warren Scott

A rescue boat searches for the driver of a tractor-trailer that sped through Wellsburg and crashed into the Ohio River Friday morning. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene.

WELLSBURG — Local officials are attempting to determine what led to a tractor-trailer crashing into the Ohio River Friday morning, and the death of its driver.

Greg Moore, Brooke County director of emergency management, confirmed the driver, whose name wasn’t available, was pronounced dead after being extricated from the truck’s cab beneath the river’s surface near 10th Street.

Moore said the truck, which was carrying a steel coil, was seen veering down state W.Va. 27 and through its intersection with W.Va. 2 at a high rate of speed while somehow failing to strike any other vehicles or buildings.

“I don’t know how the driver did that. That’s a busy intersection,” said Moore.

The truck continued through two more intersections before entering an access road leading to the rear parking lot of the Brooke County Public Library and striking a tree as it veered over an embankment of the Ohio River and crashed into the water below.

Moore noted multiple fire, police and emergency departments were dispatched to the scene. Among them were the rescue boats of the Brooke County Sheriff’s Department and Weirton and Wheeling fire departments and about a dozen divers from Weirton, Wheeling, North Strabane Township, Pa., and the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources.

Moore confirmed Gladiator Trucking, the truck’s owner, has hired a towing service to remove the truck and its cargo, which weigh about 193,000 pounds.

Alex Schneider, director of the Brooke County Public Library, said a senior fitness class there had just ended when she heard the truck pass the south end of the building and called 911 at about 9:14 a.m.

Schneider said she closed the library soon after.

Kim Harless, the library’s program coordinator, noted it’s not the first time a large truck has veered onto the library’s property.

More than 15 years ago, the brakes of another truck failed at the intersection of state Routes 2 and 27, causing it also to travel through town before it overturned in the library’s rear lot and the backyard of a next-door neighbor.

Many residents have expressed concerns through the years about the steep grade of Route 27, also known as Washington Pike, as it approaches Route 2.

On Tuesday evening, a large box truck overturned while entering Route 2 from Route 27, spilling commercial-grade glue onto the roadway. No one was harmed in that incident, the cause of which hasn’t been determined.