Keith Feltman of Haleyville was rolling down Interstate 65 in his 18-wheeler Wednesday when another rig pulling an empty, 40-foot propane tank slammed into his cab door.

The next thing he knew, he was turned over on his side and hanging from his seat belt.

“I wasn’t thinking about anything, I was just kind of stunned,” Feltman said, as he watched employees from Gregg’s Wrecker Service of Athens and some prisoners clean up the debris spilled from his load. “Some guys stopped on the other side and helped me get out.”

“He’s a lucky man,” said Donald “Doughboy” Johnson, who works for the wrecker service.

The driver of the other rig, who is from Florida, was also uninjured, witnesses said. His name was not available at press time from State Trooper David Godwin.

The accident happened about 4:30 p.m. north of the Alabama 53 exit, and it backed up traffic in the northbound lane for about three miles. It took six wreckers – including 25- and 30-ton wreckers – to upright the overturned tractors, trailers and empty propane tank.

“I was in the outside lane and the other truck passed me on the inside lane and he fell in the curve,” said Feltman, a 20-year veteran trucker. “His load shifted and he went into the median. The propane tank came off the trailer and landed in the opposite ditch and the tractor came loose from the trailer and hit me on the driver’s side.

The impact forced Feltman, 47, onto the grassy roadside of the interstate as he tried to ride it out. But the heavy cargo of huge bolts and other parts headed for a Kentucky lock and damn shifted and rolled the tractor-trailer onto the sloped roadsides of the interstate. Feltman’s rig, now on its side, slid about 100 yards down a paved drainage channel at the bottom of the embankment. Bolts and wooden pallets left a trail of debris.

The next thing Feltman knew, he was hanging by his seat belt inside the cab of his 2003 Kenworth. He was alive.

“I’m all right; the seat belt just left a mark on my shoulder,” Feltman said, showing off the black mark on his upper shoulder.

“I called my family a little bit ago,” he said. “They were pretty upset.”

He and his wife Wanda have a 19-year-old daughter Brittany who is a nursing student.

“They’re just glad I’m all right,” he said.

Three wreckers from Tate’s Wrecker Service removed the other tractor, trailer and the empty propane tank.