WALPOLE, MASS. (WHDH) - A driver has been hospitalized with serious injuries after they slammed into a flatbed truck that was hauling 100-foot-long steel beams in Walpole on Monday morning, officials said.
Officers responding to a report of a crash involving a car and a tractor-trailer in the area of School Street and Hanson Avenue around 11 a.m. found a sedan that had its roof torn off by overhanging beams, according to the Walpole Police Department.
The 70-year-old driver was extricated from the sedan and taken to a Boston hospital by medical helicopter. Later in the evening, officials told 7NEWS the man was “recovering nicely” and called it “a total miracle.”
Video from Sky7 HD showed the mangled sedan in the middle of the street and the beams hanging off the back of the truck.
Investigators believe the gray skies made it difficult for the driver to see the beams, which had just been picked up from the nearby KW Steel Structures.
Gilbert James, who recorded video of the crash, said there should have been a spotter in the street monitoring the oversized load.
“The human error was there should have been a spotter on the street. The spotter was sitting in his red truck when he should have been on the street,” James said.
Having the steel beam company located in the middle of a residential area is an “unsafe situation,” neighborhood resident Dave Lynch said.
State police are assisting Walpole police with an investigation into the proximity of the two spotters at the time of the crash.
They are planning to speak with the driver Tuesday morning.
It is believed a big rig carrying steel beams was backing up and a car hit it. The top of the sedan was torn off. The driver was airlifted to a hospital. #7news pic.twitter.com/bkCSYUzf44
— Kimberly Bookman (@KimberlyBookman) January 4, 2021
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