By OLIVIA BERGMEIER
Lead Reporter - Salina Post
On Friday last week, just after 1 p.m., Saline County Sheriff's Office deputies stopped and arrested a Culligan employee after multiple witnesses reported a Culligan box truck dragging along a barbed wire fence.
Saline County Sheriff Roger Soldan said that just north of the junction of Interstates 135 and 70, the driver, later identified as 35-year-old Salina resident Thomas Norton, reported falling asleep and veering from the roadway.
"The box truck was going southbound, left the highway, went down off and through the interstate fence," Soldan said. "Then we get a second report, a third report that the thing had come back up onto the interstate, back in through a field, and was dragging a chunk of barbed wire fence."
Norton then drove eastbound on Interstate 70 with the portion of the fence, exited the interstate at Ninth Street, and parked at a gas station near Ninth Street and Euclid Avenue.
Once stopped, Soldan said Saline County deputies then began conversations with Norton, who reported he fell asleep, leading him to veer off the highway.
"Thomas [Norton] ended up being arrested for possession of marijuana, possession of paraphernalia, leaving the scene of an accident, improper driving on a laned roadway and no seatbelt," Soldan said. "The fence that was damaged belonged to KDOT [Kansas Department of Transportation]."
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