I found another news story about the accident with more details. It looks like the tractor rolled over on the driver after it was hit by the truck.
Man killed in collision | TimesDaily.com | The Times Daily | Florence, AL
Man killed in collision
By Tom Smith
Senior Staff Writer
Published: Friday, June 17, 2011 at 3:30 a.m.
Christopher Softley was known as someone who was always willing to help anytime he was called upon.
滴e's lived here about 20 years and he was a good man, said Joe Pounders, owner of Pounders Trailer Sales and Muscle Shoals Trailer Court on Avalon Avenue.
Softley was killed Thursday morning when the tractor he was driving across Singing River Bridge was struck by a dump truck, state troopers said. Softley was 53.
Troopers said the accident happened at 7:30 a.m. in the northbound lane of the bridge.
Authorities said the driver of the truck, Robert L. Cowan, 52, of Russellville, was not seriously injured.
Emergency personnel said Cowan was taken to Helen Keller Hospital in Sheffield. Julia Bonner, community relations director at the hospital, said Cowan was treated and later released.
鼎hris was a good man, very easygoing and seemed to be very likeable, Pounders said. 的f you needed help with anything, he was always there, willing.
Authorities said Softley was driving a John Deere 520 tractor, which had a front-end loader, and was pulling a bush hog.
Officials at the scene said it was their understanding Softley was on his way to do some work for a Florence resident.
Cowan was driving a Mack dump truck that was loaded with gravel.
Emergency workers at the scene said it appeared the dump truck clipped the tractor in the rear, flipping it around and turning it over on its side. Softley was trapped underneath the tractor.
He was pronounced dead at the scene by Lauderdale County Coroner Andy High.
After the collision, the truck ended up turning on the driver's side, spilling its load of gravel and trapping the driver inside.
Traffic in the northbound lane of the bridge corridor was rerouted for almost four hours while crews worked to upright the tractor and the dump truck.
Equipment was brought in to clean the spilled gravel.
A minor accident occurred about 20 minutes later in the southbound lane of the bridge as motorists slowed to view the crash, authorities said. No one was reported injured in that accident.
The fatality remains under investigation by state troopers.
Softley is the 34th person killed in a traffic fatality this year in northwest Alabama and the southern Tennessee counties of Wayne and Lawrence.
It is the fourth traffic fatality in the past seven days.
