PEABODY, MASS. (WHDH) - Surveillance video obtained by 7NEWS shows a car driving the wrong way on Route 1 in Peabody Sunday morning before the driver crashed into a Massachusetts State Police cruiser, injuring a trooper. It’s the same road where a wrong-way driver hit and killed Trooper Kevin Trainor last month.
The video, captured on a store’s security camera, shows a pick-up truck going the wrong direction on the northbound ride of Route 1. State police with flashing lights tried to stop the driver, but moments later, authorities said the truck slammed into a responding trooper in his marked cruiser.
This crash comes less than a month after Massachusetts State Police trooper Kevin Trainor was killed in a wrong-way crash on Route 1 in Lynnfield. The 50-year-old wrong-way driver was also killed.
Trainor’s mother spoke with 7NEWS Monday about the emotional toll the crash has taken on her. She said she knows the trooper that was injured in the Peabody crash Sunday, and she reached out to speak with him after the incident.
“I just, like, burst into tears. It was like I relived the whole thing in my head all over again,” said Barbara Trainor, Kevin Trainor’s mother. “My very next thought was, I probably know who this is and I want to go scoop him up and hug him like he’s my own son. That’s exactly what I was thinking.”
The trooper that was hurt worked at the Danvers Barracks with Kevin, and was a pallbearer during his funeral.
“I reached out to that trooper,” Trainor said. “I know he has his own family and friends, but I literally felt like he was my own son. I just wanted to put my arms around him and tell him he’s going to be okay.”
State police said the wrong-way driver was identified as 41-year-old Lucas Benedetto. He was taken to the hospital to be treated for injuries but has since been released. State police said he is facing several charges including operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and driving the wrong way on a state highway.
“It’s been happening a lot more, but I don’t understand it,” Trainor said. “They’re going to have to do something with these roads, because what are they going to wait for another person to die? A trooper or a civilian like yourself? Something has to be done.”
The trooper, whose cruiser was left mangled, suffered minor injuries and is now recovering at home. Trainor said she thinks some divine intervention may have been at play that morning.
“Kevin was there protecting him, made sure he was okay so his mom doesn’t have to go through what I just did,” she said.
Benedetto is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.
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