BENNINGTON, VT : BPD releases officer reports on Heck crash, aftermath on Monday, 8th February 2021

Police Chief Paul Doucette said Wednesday that he will “stand by the actions” of his officers following the Jan. 8 rollover crash of a pickup being driven by Hans Heck, who left the scene and was found three days later in a wooded area, having died of hypothermia.

Doucette commented following the release of multiple police incident reports concerning the crash and efforts to locate Heck before his body was found Jan. 11 in a thickly wooded site off Route 279, where the crash occurred.

While attempting several times to acquire copies of police reports concerning the crash, family members and friends of Heck have alleged that the BPD was negligent for not trying harder to find him afterward.

According to reports from the officers involved, witnesses said Heck, 35, was involved in an apparent road rage incident and attempting to pass a pickup truck near the Austin Hill Road underpass when his Nissan Frontier pickup truck swerved and struck the side of the other vehicle. The Nissan then rolled over and came to rest about 25 feet off the north side of the highway.

Both vehicles had been travelling east shortly after 6 p.m. from Hoosick, N.Y., into Bennington.


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