A tractor-trailer loaded with christmas trees lost its brakes and went into the lower of two sand piles on U.S. 421 in Wilkes County near the Watauga County line early Sunday afternoon. Wilkes Emergency Management Coordinator Suzanne Hamby said the driver of the rig was fortunate to have not been hurt. Mrs. Hamby said the rig belonged to a company in New Jersey and was hauling Fraser fir Christmas trees grown and picked up in Lansing.