Two car fires on I-91
By Guy Page and Alex Nuti de-Biasi
A tractor-trailer truck shattered upon impact when it crashed onto its side on the Barre-Montpelier Road in Berlin Thursday morning at about 8:30 AM.
The crash – details on what caused it are sketchy – smashed a power line in half, knocking out power momentarily. The tractor-trailer came to rest on its side in the driveway of the Vermont Agency of Transportation building at the intersection of Partridge Farm Road, a few hundred yards distant from the well-known Wayside Restaurant.
No one was hurt in the single-vehicle accident. However, both cab and trailer were crushed on the right side and the trailer broke open, disgorging a load of furniture into a nearby brook.
A Berlin police officer on the scene speculated that the driver may have been turning left from the steep, downhill Rte. 62 bypass and was not able to control the lefthand turn. However, he was not the investigating officer, and police are still gathering evidence.
Car fires on I-91
There did not appear to be any significant injuries after two separate car fires yesterday temporarily shut down sections of I-91 south, today’s Journal-Opinion newsletter reports.
The first was in Fairlee in the morning when emergency responders were dispatched to I-91 just south of exit 15 where detoured southbound traffic has returned to the highway. Fairlee Police Department and several area fire departments responded to the scene. Details were not immediately available.
The second was yesterday evening in Ryegate just north of exit 17. Vermont State Police say that crash was precipitated by a deer strike. The driver, a New York woman, was taken to the hospital for an evaluation.