COLRAIN ,NH : NH man killed when dump truck crashes into Colrain building on August, Tuesday 15th 2017

The driver of a truck died after going head-on into a vacated building in the town center Tuesday morning, on an overcast and wet day.

The driver has been identified as Robert Leustek of Winchester, New Hampshire, according to the Keene Sentinel.

The 10-wheeler truck was headed down the mountain into town around 8:08 a.m. when it likely lost its brakes, Colrain Fire Chief Nicholas Anzuoni said.

Following inspection by the town, the building was condemned and will likely be demolished, the chief said. The crash caused significant damage to the side of the baby-blue property that had been recently purchased.

The chief expected traffic to be back to normal by the late afternoon Tuesday.


It wasn’t until around 10:30 a.m. that the truck was able to be removed from the building. Firefighters had prepared for a potential collapse of the building that Anzuoni said had its foundation shifted from the impact of the crash.

It took two cranes to tow it out.

“I’m frankly amazed it didn’t move at all when we pulled the truck out,” Anzuoni said. “Pleasantly surprised that there was no further collapse.”

Within the first hour of the crash in the town center, Colrain; Greenfield; Wilmington, Vermont; and Halifax, Vermont, were among the towns with first responders at the scene. An ambulance and EMS responders were also present.

Around noon, the truck had yet to be towed away on a flatbed. Firefighters climbed to the top of the truck and shoveled the pile of debris and the shifted load below it to the back end and out of the truck.

Tuesday morning, state police and special teams, including a medical examiner, documented the scene.

The general area where the crash happened has been known as the “truck stop” by those in town. In July, a 10-wheel dump truck crashed in the plot of land across from the town common and adjacent to where Tuesday’s crash occurred. After that, the town spoke about ways to increase the safety of the area.

The chief recommends for people to avoid the Greenfield Road down into the village altogether. Instead for people coming from Route 2, he suggests going into Shelburne Falls and picking up Route 112.

But, Anzuoni said, the downhill stretch of Greenfield Road is safe to drive. He pointed to the two construction projects going on at the bottom of the hill in town, where trucks go to daily.

“We have people drive this every day with no problem,” Anzuoni said.

The issue typically is with drivers not familiar with the road, he said.

“Truck drivers really have to obey the laws and have to use caution down the mountain,” Anzuoni said. “You have to respect the mountain.”

He said it could be beneficial to add to the pre-existing warnings, where yellow signs alert drivers of the steepness anywhere between a 5 and 11 percent grade. Drivers are alerted to slow down from 40 to 30 to 20 mph and lower their gear, if possible. One idea floated around were blinking signs to further alert truck drivers.

“Sure they’ll be looking at that even harder in the future,” he said about the town’s Select Board.

A utility line was also taken down, but no residents lost power, the chief said. The line was restored within the first two hours of the crash.

Northwestern district attorney’s office spokeswoman Mary Carey said Colrain Police, Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office, MSP Crime Scene Services and MSP Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section are investigating.


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NH man killed when dump truck crashes into Colrain building