Trooper dies after crashing motorcycle

A veteran state trooper died last night after a motorcycle accident in the Ted Williams Tunnel, authorities said.

Vincent Cila, 45, was driving west on the Massachusetts Turnpike at the Interstate 93 interchange when the crash occurred, said Trooper Veronica Dalton.

Cila's arm was severed in the crash, and he died as a result of severe blood loss, said several state troopers who did not want to be identified. Cila died at Boston Medical Center after the crash at 4:35 p.m., State Police said.

It was unclear what caused Cila to lose control of the motorcycle, but State Police said no other vehicles were involved. Another trooper was riding behind Cila at the time, but was not involved in the accident. State Police did not say how fast Cila was going, only that he was traveling at a low speed in the tunnel, where the speed limit is 40 miles per hour.

Shaken troopers and Cila's relatives descended on Boston Medical Center, where State Police Lieutenant Sharon Costine said Cila ''had a big heart."

''There are a lot of heartbroken people today," she said.

A 22-year veteran of the force and the father of two children, Cila had worked at the barracks at Logan International Airport since 2001, State Police said. Before that, he was assigned for many years to the Andover and Medford barracks, which meant he often had to bear the bad news of fatal crashes, drownings, and other misfortunes to surviving family and the media. Last night, the grief was for Cila.

''On behalf of the men and women of the Massachusetts State Police, I extend our deepest sympathies to Trooper Cila's family," Colonel Thomas G. Robbins, who is the superintendent of the State Police, said during a press conference outside Boston Medical Center.

A State Police officer who had known Cila since he joined the force in 1983 described him as a hard-working family man who enjoyed spending time with his relatives. He was known for having a good work ethic and a lot of integrity, troopers said. ''He was always smiling," said the trooper, who did not want to be identified. ''I think he felt very fortunate to have the job he had to be able to provide for his family."

Cila was known to extend himself while off-duty. Once in 1995, while sailing in Boston Harbor on a day off, Cila helped Boston fire and police rescue officials save an injured homeless man from drowning by pulling him onto his boat.

As the news traveled of Cila's death, grim-faced uniformed and plainclothes state troopers gathered at the Logan Airport barracks, where the US flag was lowered to half-staff at 8:15 p.m. Officers arrived in cruisers marked and unmarked and on State Police motorcycles. Some huddled outside, while others gathered inside the small office behind closed doors.

''He was loved by everyone down here," said an off-duty trooper who declined to give his name as he headed inside.

A larger group of State Police officers and Cila's relatives gathered at Boston Medical Center last evening.

Grieving troopers gathered in a lobby at the hospital, some of them bowing their heads as they spoke with priests.

Cila had been to the scene of many fatalities during his career, including that of his father-in-law in 1999.

Cila found Robert W. Campbell, 63, a retired Metropolitan Police sergeant, killed when the pickup truck he was driving overturned on Woodland Road in Stoneham.

In 1983, as a rookie trooper, Cila suffered a concussion and a shoulder injury when he and a Revere police officer were struck by a car while investigating an accident on Route 60 in Revere.

This is the first death of an active State Police officer in more than six years, Dalton said.

Andrew C. Palombo, 51, of Lynn, a Massachusetts State Police lieutenant, died from injuries suffered in an off-duty motorcycle accident in July 1998. Troopers Paul Perry, 39, and James Mataliano, 39, were killed on duty when a helicopter they were riding in crashed into the Harvard Sailing Center on the Charles River in February 1995.

Globe correspondents Cyra Master, Benjamin Freed, and Aubrey Gibavic contributed to this report.