Medical event may have led to fatal overturned tanker, coroner says

A 47-year-old man is dead after the tanker truck he was driving overturned in the 300 block of Old Columbus Road in Opelika.

Travis Rutherford Potts Jr. of Opelika was pronounced dead at the scene of the 5:58 a.m. Wednesday crash, said Lee County Coroner Bill Harris. Although he was removed quickly from the truck with spilled liquid asphalt, Potts had no visible signs of injuries and he may have suffered a medical event causing the crash, the coroner said.

His body will be transported to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences in Montgomery , Ala., for a postmortem examination to determine a cause of death.

The crash remains under investigation by the Lee County Coroner and Opelika Police Department.

This story was originally published October 3, 2018 at 6:27 PM.