CHELMSFORD, MASS. (WHDH) - Authorities have identified the 22-year-old man who was killed in a violent crash in Chelmsford late Tuesday night involving a front-end loader that was helping clear debris from Tropical Storm Isaias.
Officers responding to a reported serious motor vehicle crash at the intersection of Graniteville Road and School Street around 9:30 p.m. determined that a pickup truck driven by Michael Franklin, of Westford, had collided with the town-issued front-end loader, according to Chelmsford Police Chief James M. Spinney.
Franklin suffered serious injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.
“It’s a hole in my life,” Michael’s father, Chris Franklin, said. “It’s going to be there forever.”
Chris Franklin remembered his son a “happy kid” who often helped out around his neighborhood.
“He was a happy kid and he helped all the neighbors,” he said. “It’s a neighborhood where everybody knows everybody. He would help out.”
The front-end loader operator, 53-year-old David Tyler, also suffered serious injuries and was transported to Lowell General Hospital.
Police say Tyler is an employee of the Chelmsford Department of Public Works and was driving the front-end loader to assist with storm cleanup.
Kristen Parker, who lives near the crash scene, said Tyler was found laying in the round.
“The man from the Chelmsford DPW was laying in the road,” Parker recalled. “My husband called 911, and I went over to him to see if he was conscious and alert, to see if he was breathing.”
A preliminary investigation suggests Franklin entered the intersection and struck the bucket of the front-end loader.
A makeshift memorial has since been set up near the intersection and friends could be seen flocking to the memorial to pay their respects throughout the day on Wednesday.
The Chelmsford Police Department and state police detectives assigned to the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office are investigating the cause of the crash.
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