Truck plows through side of store

Christopher Brooke

The Virginia State Police trooper charged operator Max Sheets, 22, of Galax with failure to maintain control of vehicle/faulty brakes.

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FANCY GAP — An on-the-fritz snowplow rolled back into the Kangaroo Express on Tuesday morning, breaching the wall and causing damage inside the convenience store. The snow plow might have pushed on into the building, but it looked like the convenience store's refrigeration system got in the way.
"The coolers area actually pushed away from the wall," said Trooper J.A, Alderman of the Virginia State Police, who investigated the incident. "There's pretty extensive damage on the inside."
The operator of the snow plow, a 1993 Ford 700 — owned by Layman and Associates of Austinville, a state contractor — had been having problems with the vehicle that morning, so he left it at the Kangaroo Express just west of Interstate 77's Exit 8.
The company sent out a driver to retrieve the truck later, but the truck stalled as it was pulling out the parking lot at about 11:10 a.m., Alderman said. That caused the truck to lose his hydraulic brakes and it rolled backwards through the parking lot.
The plow then struck a Jeep Cherokee and kept going into the wall of the building.
Alderman estimated damage to the convenience store at about $50,000 and about $2,000 to the Cherokee. No injuries were reported.
The Virginia State Police trooper charged operator Max Sheets, 22, of Galax with failure to maintain control of vehicle/faulty brakes.