Accident on Interstate 40 in Roane County tied up traffic for hours on Friday. (Source: Kyle Grainger, WVLT)

ROANE COUNTY, Tenn. (WVLT) -- Truckers traveling along Interstate 40 near the Rockwood exit, say it can be dangerous to drive on, especially when it rains. Emergency managers say they've worked on the road, but people need to slow down and pay attention.

On Friday, crews worked to remove a tractor trailer that had slid down an embankment during an accident on Thursday. County Emergency Management Director, Howie Rose, says accidents in the area are common.

"If you are driving on that stretch of I-40 through Roane County even on a sunny day you need to be careful. that's the bottom line," said Rose. "That curve is a lot steeper than a lot of people think and it seems to be one of those nuisance areas on the interstate that we have."

I-40 travels 23 miles through Roane County from Cumberland County to Loudon County, TDOT reports 310 crashes in 2009 for the entire stretch of roadway. Rose says TDOT has made improvements with new pavement and new warning signs, but for truckers it hasn't been enough.

"Throws your truck up in the air, it will throw you out of your seat every time you come through there. it upsets your truck, rocks it back and forth," said Joey Wilder, a truck driver for FedEx. "It causes a lot of guys that are not familiar with it to lose control of their trucks."

"That's a treacherous piece of highway. it's been worked and worked and worked and I don't know that we can make it any safer than what it is right now," added Rose.

The driver of the truck that crashed on Thursday says he is doing fine, and that he hit a patch of diesel fuel that had spilled on the roadway and that caused him to run off the road.