WINTHROP - The driver of a tractor trailer that tipped over while filled with over 20 tons of Hershey chocolate products was ticketed for moving from lane unsafely following an accident reported at 7:38 a.m. Wednesday.

The incident left a portion of Route 11 in the town of Stockholm closed for five hours and restricted to one lane for another three hours. It took place between Routes 11C at Stockholm Center and Route 420 near Connolly’s Corners just outside the hamlet of Winthrop.

Massena state police said Rodney Lewis Plemons, 43, of Foley, Ala., was southwest bound on Route 11 when the truck went off the road and flipped onto its side.

“He’s claiming he was forced to the shoulder by an uninvolved large vehicle in the other lane. He moved from his lane to the shoulder and the passenger side wheels went off the shoulder,” Trooper Daniel W. Manor Jr. said at the accident scene.

He said Plemons was able to briefly regain control of his truck but he trailer flipped on its after hitting the wet glass, eventually flipping the truck on its side. “We know he went off the road, tried to come back on, and the load in the trailer shifted,” according to the state trooper.

The trailer skidded on its side for approximately 100 yards before the cab flipped onto its side and skidded another 200 feet before and came to rest in the west lane of the roadway.

Plemons was not injured in the accident. He told troopers he was wearing his seatbelt at the time of the accident.

Martin’s Towing and members of the Brasher-Winthrop Fire Department and Tri-Town Rescue Squad unloaded 41,000 pounds of boxed Hershey chocolate products headed from Vermont to Utah.

The load was transferred to a second trailer late Wednesday morning.

Troopers said the truck was registered to FFE Transportation of Dallas, Texas. Plemons had been driving for the company for the past 18 months.

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