Police have identified the truck driver involved in an accident last night at approximately 9:00 p.m., on the Interstate 89 bridge between Winooski and Burlington.
Vermont State Police believe the accident began when the driver of a Jeep Cherokee lost control while driving in the passing lane. The Cherokee sideswiped a guardrail then crossed into the center lane. The Cherokee was then rear ended by a pickup. A Ford Focus that was in the center lane was then rear ended by a truck. The truck then crashed through the guardrail on the Winooski River Bridge and plunged over the side of the bridge. The truck fell 50 feet.
“The 2003 tractor trailer with a 53-foot box, hauling large rolls of paper from Quebec to Massachusetts, hit the guardrails at a right angle, punching through them. Large sections of the guardrails were left dangling off the side of the bridge, swaying a bit like a lazy pendulum in the muggy nighttime breeze after the crash,” the Burlington Free Press reported.
The truck driver, 37-year-old Danny Gauthier, of Sainte Ann de Sabrevois, Quebec, was critically injured.
Investigators believe that wet roads contributed to the accident.