Truck driver dies after fiery I-91 crash
By James Vaznis, Globe Staff, and John Dyer, Globe Correspondent
CHICOPEE -- The truck driver whose vehicle rolled over on Interstate 91 and burst into a fireball 60 feet high has died.
Forty-three-year-old Aaron J. Staelens of Richmond, N.H., died Friday evening at Massachusetts General Hospital, hospital spokeswoman Jennifer Gundersen said.
Staelens had swerved to avoid a car crash unfolding in front of him at about 9:30 a.m. Friday in the northbound lanes near Exit 13 A on the Chicopee Curve, a stretch of road that has been the site of frequent tractor-trailer rollovers, State Police and city officials said.
“It’s the most dangerous curve on the entire stretch of I-91, and it is a direct result of faulty design,” said Mayor Michael Bissonette of Chicopee.
Staelens was rushed to Baystate Medical Center, then flown by helicopter to Massachusetts General Hospital.
It took firefighters 90 minutes to extinguish the blaze, which emanated from the 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel in saddle tanks on the cab of the truck, said Captain Barry O’Brien of the State Police. The large tank on the trailer filled with 9,600 gallons of gasoline was on fire when firefighters arrived but did not explode, O’Brien said.
During the rollover, the tank on the trailer separated from the cab of the truck and rolled off the interstate, down an embankment, and onto Center Street in an industrial neighborhood in Chicopee. The mayor said they were lucky the accident did not occur near homes.
The fireball “was more visually dramatic than dangerous” for the nearby neighborhood, Bissonette said.
Police said the crash was triggered when a 1995 Subaru stalled as it merged onto I-91 from Interstate 395. The car picked up speed, but then struck a 2002 Nissan Altima. The truck swerved, but hit the Subaru and then ran off the right shoulder of the road and hit a traffic sign. The Subaru was then hit from behind by another car.
The company that owns the tanker, Abenaqui Carriers of North Hampton, N.H., released a statement that said the truck driver was "taking evasive action to avoid what may have been a disabled vehicle and that action caused the tanker to rollover.” The statement said that “speed was not a factor.”
Abenaqui Carriers is also the owner of a tanker that exploded in Everett in December that severely damaged several homes and destroyed dozens of cars. A spokesman for the company said the driver of that truck has not been cited or charged with any wrongdoing.
Witnesses told the Springfield Republican newspaper in a story on its website yesterday that the driver was trapped in the truck and more than a dozen motorists pulled over to try to free the man, some carrying blankets and jackets to smother the flames.
"They were trying to get him out of the cab, but everybody who tried would be stopped by the flames," said Gregory Coleman of Westfield. "There were just a bunch of people running towards the fire. It was crazy."
The driver, however, was able to escape the truck. “There was this sort of ring of fire around the cab and he was able to pull himself out,” O’Brien said.
Moments later the tanker then blew up. "The explosion just rocked the whole bridge," said Rebecca Colemen of Chicopee. "The car bounced."
Material from the Associated Press is included in this report.
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