MIDDLETON, MASS. (WHDH) - A pizza delivery driver who became distracted after dropping his phone in the car struck and critically injured a landscaper on a lawnmower in Middleton Thursday evening, police said.
Officers responding to a reported crash on Village Road around 5:30 p.m. learned that the the driver traveling westbound went off the road, onto the sidewalk, hit a concrete pillar then a fire hydrant before striking the landscaper, police said.
The car eventually came to a stop when it flipped on its side.
The driver told responding officers that he dropped his phone and leaned down to pick it up when the crash happened, a police sergeant at the scene told 7NEWS.
The landscaper was taken to Beverly Hospital before being airlifted to Beth Israel Hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The driver was also transported to Beverly Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Marie Cioffi, who lives in the neighborhood, says the driver should have stopped his car before trying to retrieve his phone.
“He dropped his phone; he was trying to pick it up because he needed the GPS. Well, you should pull over,” she said. “I mean, we’ve been complaining about how fast people come down this hill. This is a daily thing.”
The crash remains under investigation.
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