DANVERS, MASS. (WHDH) – An Alaska woman has been left devastated after her father was killed when a large piece of metal flew off the back of a landscaping truck and crashed through the windshield of his rental vehicle on Interstate 95 in Danvers on Friday morning.
Troopers responding to a report of a vehicle that had been struck by a piece of metal on the northbound side of the highway near Exit 67B around 8:20 a.m. found a 2020 Ford Fusion that had been impaled by a 15-foot piece of metal, according to Massachusetts State Police.
The driver, 69-year-old Thomas Arrington, of Palmer, Alaska, was pronounced dead at the scene.
“[I’m] very sad, obviously, but also so grateful that I got to be his daughter out of all of the people in the whole wide world,” Arrington’s daughter told 7News over the phone.
Arrington’s 68-year-old wife, who was injured in the crash, has been treated and released from an area hospital. She plans to fly back to Alaska to make funeral arrangements for her husband, who was a father of two and grandfather of three.
The couple’s daughter said she dropped her parents off at the airport on Thursday evening, and they arrived at Logan Airport on Friday morning. They picked up a rental car and were headed for a three-week long vacation spanning the east coast when the accident occurred.
The piece of metal, which police identified as a concrete screed, pierced the windshield of the Fusion and struck Arrington. He was able to stop the vehicle in the third travel lane before succumbing to his injuries.
The screed, a tool used to level and smooth freshly poured concrete, fell out of a 2020 Ford F550 dump truck that was being operated by a 21-year-old Lynn man.
Police noted the operator, an employee at a Lynn-based constriction company, has since identified himself and has been cooperative.
In her shock and grief, Arrington’s daughter said she feels bad for the driver of the dump truck.
“It scares me for him that there’s probably going to be some sort of legal consequences for him that will be life-altering. That’s a heavy burden for a young person with, probably, not a lot of maturity,” she said.
No charges have been filed against the driver of the dump truck at this time. An investigation into the incident remains ongoing.
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