Tractor trailer runs over scooter, kills driver

Police were searching last night for the driver of a tractor trailer suspected of striking, dragging, and killing an 18-year-old man riding a motor scooter at the Massachusetts Avenue onramp to the Massachusetts Turnpike.

After hitting the teenager, the driver of the 18-wheeler stopped momentarily on the Turnpike to look at a tire that was on fire, said Boston police spokesman David Estrada. He refused the help of several Turnpike workers and drove off with the tire ablaze, police said.

The victim, whose name was not released, was pronounced dead at the scene, Estrada said. The teenager was riding on Massachusetts Avenue when he was struck about 9:30 p.m., police said.

After the impact, the truck continued down the ramp, taking the scooter and its rider with it, police said. Both were found at the bottom of the ramp, which was closed for several hours after the accident, police said.

Estrada described the truck driver as a 6-foot-4-inch white man with a goatee, weighing about 240 pounds and wearing a blue shirt and blue jeans. The truck's cab is either maroon or red, and the trailer is either silver or white, Estrada said.

Last year in April, Ewa Sendrowska of Lynn was killed in a crash on the Massachusetts Turnpike in the same area, after being trapped in the rear of a Mercedes driven by a friend, who was charged with motor vehicle homicide while driving under the influence of alcohol, State Police said then.

In 1988, Frederick Webber, a 17-year-old Berklee School of Music student, was killed and six others were injured when a car skidded out of control and plowed into a line of people waiting at Tower Records on Newbury Street.