Photo by Evan Bevins Pifer’s Service Center employee Pete Hooper secures a GMC Sonoma on his truck Wednesday after an early morning accident on Interstate 77 that claimed the life of 26-year-old Logan James Dilliner of Mineral Wells.

PARKERSBURG — A Mineral Wells man died Wednesday morning after his truck rear-ended a loaded semi trailer rig, went off the road and burst into flames.

Logan James Dilliner, 21, was driving to work in Beallsville, Ohio, when the accident happened on Interstate 77, south of the U.S. 50 exit, Wood County Sheriff’s Sgt. B.A. Pickens said. Dilliner’s GMC Sonoma truck went off the berm and struck an embankment, rolled onto its top “and then became engulfed in flames,” he said.

“The semi driver thought he had a blowout, so he stopped a quarter of a mile from the scene,” Pickens said. “When he got pulled over, he sees a small fire and he starts walking that way.”

The crash was reported around 5:44 a.m., he said.

The accident remains under investigation. It is not clear what caused the Sonoma to run into the trailer, which was carrying a load of steel, but Pickens said he believes Dilliner either fell asleep at the wheel or misjudged the speed and distance when attempting to pass the larger truck, which was traveling in the center lane.

Photo by Evan Bevins Members of the East Wood Volunteer Fire Department hose down the berm of Interstate 77 south of the U.S. 50 exit at the scene of an accident that claimed the life of a Mineral Wells man.

“There is no suspicion of alcohol or drugs,” he said, noting there will still be tests because that is standard procedure.

The West Virginia Public Service Commission, which oversees commercial transportation, responded to the scene and interviewed Darryl Barker of Kentucky, the driver of the truck, Pickens said.

Everything seemed to be in order and the driver appears to have acted properly, the deputy sheriff said.

Deputies were initially unable to identify Dilliner because the fire had melted the vehicle’s tags and vehicle identification number plate, Pickens said. By Wednesday afternoon, they had made the connection and begun notifying his family.

Two of the three northbound lanes of I-77 near the crash site were closed for nearly four hours while the crash was investigated and the scene processed.