By Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First

BETHEL  – A longtime Vermont State Police trooper was critically injured when his cruiser crashed into a stopped fire truck on Interstate 89 in Bethel on Friday morning.

Patrol Cpl. Eric Vitali, a 19-year veteran with state police, was airlifted to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. after the 8:30 a.m. crash, officials said, and was treated in intensive care. 

The crash happened in the northbound lanes just north of the Bethel exit when the marked VSP cruiser struck a fire truck that was stopped on the highway after responding to a previous slide-off, spokesman Adam Silverman said.

Vitali was headed to state police headquarters in Waterbury for first aid training, Silverman said.

The force of the impact between the cruiser and the fire truck was significant and indicates the cruiser was traveling at highway speeds when the crash occurred, Silverman said.

Cpl. Vitali was wearing his seat belt. The fire truck was unoccupied, and no one else was injured.

Vitali, 41, joined the state police during the summer of 2005 and later graduated from the Vermont Police Academy in November 2005, employment records show. He has been assigned to the Royalton station in recent years after assignments at the Rockingham and Westminster barracks.  He was named a corporal in 2020.

Vitali is currently a member of the Critical Action Team, which responds to riots and other disturbances.  He also is on the state police dive squad, now known as the Underwater Recovery Team and the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Program dealing with drones. Vitali also serves as a firearms instructor. He previously was a member of the SWAT Team, now called the Tactical Services Unit.

The initial crash involved a Freightliner box truck for People’s Linen Service of Keene, New Hampshire, driven by Matthew Black, 33, of Keene.

According to the Enforcement Division of the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles, the primary law-enforcement agency assigned to the initial crash, the box truck was northbound in the right-hand, travel lane when the driver swerved suddenly to avoid a slower-moving tractor-trailer unit.

Black lost control of the box truck, which rolled onto its side before coming to rest in the median adjacent to the northbound passing lane. The driver was uninjured and declined medical attention, police said.

The Bethel fire truck was part of a response that also included cones and flares to alert motorists to the crash ahead and the closure of the passing lane, requiring vehicles to merge right into the travel lane, Silverman said.

The northbound lanes of I-89 were closed for about six hours. The cause of the crash remains under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call the Royalton Barracks at (802) 234-9933.