Belchertown, MA : 26-year-old Cape Cod man killed in single-car crash on Route 202 in Belchertown on Monday, December 29, 2014

A Cape Cod man has been identified as the driver killed in a one-car crash on Route 202 Monday night, though police do not yet know why the vehicle went off the road.

John Coady, 26, of Monument Beach, died in the accident at approximately 7:23 p.m., according to Mary Carey, a spokeswoman for the Northwestern district attorney’s office.

Belchertown Police Detective John Raymer said the road remained closed until midnight as an investigation into the fatal accident began.

Raymer said the preliminary investigation indicates that Coady’s vehicle, a 2001 Chevy Prizm, veered off the road before striking several trees. Police are not sure why this happened.

The vehicle’s engine compartment caught on fire, though the residents who live near the accident site put the fire out before it extended into the cab.

Emergency workers removed Coady from the vehicle after Belchertown firefighters used extrication equipment. Belchertown paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene, Raymer said.

The crash remains under investigation by Belchertown Police, State Police attached to the Northwestern district attorney’s office and the State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section.

Raymer said Route 202, also known as Daniel Shays Highway, is 50 mph in that section of the road, is a straightway and doesn’t feature guardrails. There are no known safety issues in that area, he said. Conditions were cold and clear Monday night.

“The investigation is focused on the time from when he got out of work until the crash,” Raymer said.

The accident occurred a few hundred yards from another fatal accident in May 2012, when a vehicle driven by Ashley Goetz, a 26-year-old University of Massachusetts graduate student, drifted off the road, hit a telephone pole and burst into flames. Goetz was the lone occupant of the vehicle.

Source :
Cape Cod man dies in Belchertown crash