BERLIN, MASS. (WHDH) - Berlin’s police chief is calling for drivers to put down their phones after a dashcam captured a car swerving off the road and into a utility police before it flipped over onto its roof last month.
Officers responding to the July 23 rollover say the driver, who suffered minor injuries, was texting behind the wheel at the time of the crash.
Ryan Hass recalled swerving off the road in order to avoid the crash.
“It is just crazy. I mean, when you’re going through it you don’t necessarily process all of it,” Hass said. “You just live it like it is a dream, or like a nightmare really, and then you go through and watch it again and start to process.”
Hass added that he is grateful things did not turn out worse.
“It just really shows the dangers of distracted driving,” Berlin Police Chief Tom Galvin said. “It creates not only a danger for you as the driver, but everyone else around.”
The driver was cited after the crash.
Officers say this is the third distracted driving incident in just five weeks.
On Tuesday night, another driver hit the same pole. Emergency crews rescued the driver after his car became pinned under a rock.
He suffered minor injuries and allegedly told officers that he doesn’t know how the crash happened.
(Copyright (c) 2024 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)