UPDATE (September 12, 2019): This story has been updated adding and correcting initial information posted at newtownbee.com immediately following the crash.

* * * * *

A loaded 2010 Freightliner tractor trailer filled with trash and building materials traveling north on South Main Street narrowly missed crashing into the front of King’s Breakfast & Lunch restaurant at the height of lunch hour Wednesday, September 11.

According to emergency dispatches following the 12:37 pm incident, the unidentified driver was briefly trapped in the cab as it laid on its side blocking the roadway.

Witnesses who contacted The Newtown Bee after initial reports were published said Botsford volunteer firefighter Kyle Placko was in the restaurant at the time, and was responsible for getting the driver out of the flipped cab.

Newtown Volunteer Ambulance personnel and a paramedic were dispatched, along with Botsford and Newtown Hook & Ladder volunteers.

Newtown Police say the operator, Angel Donato, 44, of Bridgeport, was traveling north on South Main Street when he lost control of the truck and it overturned. The trailer portion of the truck did hit a small fish pond in front of the restaurant before the truck and trailer came to rest on its side, blocking most of South Main Street.

Newtown Animal Control was dispatched to the scene to assist with the collection of fish from the damaged pond. A police supervisor later told The Newtown Bee that most of the fish in the damaged pond had survived.

The State Police Truck Squad also came to the scene and conducted an inspection, police said, adding that Donato was transported to Danbury Hospital by Newtown Ambulance. The extent of his injuries was not provided.

Minutes later, diners could be seen ordering inside the restaurant just inches from where the truck crashed through the front of the property before it rolled on its side and continued skidding toward the Sand Hill shopping center before coming to rest.

It appeared that trash began spilling from the rig’s carrier as it passed in front of the restaurant, which was the scene of another serious crash on March 4 when a vehicle drove into the building, again narrowly missing patrons.

Within about 20 minutes of the September 11 crash, town crews arrived, assisting responders by putting up detour signs and safety cones that permitted officers to open a single lane of southbound travel. Northbound vehicles were detoured to Toddy Hill Road via Button Shop Road.

This is currently an ongoing investigation, and police reported that the scene was cleared by 9:30 pm.

Shortly after the truck crash, an unrelated second collision between two vehicles that occurred around 12:40 pm at South Main Street and Orchard Hill Road resulted in at least two injuries, according to dispatch information.

It appeared that a rescue truck from Newtown Hook & Ladder that responded to the truck rollover came upon the adjacent crash while returning to its headquarters and provided assistance until Newtown EMS and a Danbury Ambulance paramedic arrived to render medical assistance and transport those injured in the second collision.