Flipped Trailer/Equipment Causes Travel Delays

By Andrew Gorosko

A piece of heavy equipment and its trailer, which were being hauled on Church Hill Road midafternoon on Thursday, July 7, toppled over, causing travel delays in the area as workers cleared the wreckage.

The incident occurred on westbound Church Hill Road, across the street from the Blue Colony Diner. There were no injuries.

Police report that Thomas Cyr, 49, of Middlebury was driving a 1996 Freightliner FL-70 dump truck about 2:39 pm on the Exit 10 off-ramp of eastbound Interstate 84 and then attempted to make a left turn onto westbound Church Hill Road.

The truck was hauling a flatbed trailer whose cargo was a hydraulic aerial lift that weighs more than 15,000 pounds. Such lifts are used on construction projects.

As the truck was attempting to make the left turn, the trailer’s wooden cargo platform broke, causing the trailer and the aerial lift atop the trailer to roll over, police said.

The incident caused a fluid spill, and the Newtown Hook & Ladder firefighters responded to the scene to contain the spillage.

Hook & Ladder Chief Jason Rivera said firefighters isolated about three gallons of a mixture of hydraulic fluid and diesel fuel that had spilled in the accident, preventing those fluids from entering a nearby stormwater catch basin.

Also, the state Department of Transportation (DOT) sent workers to the scene to repair damage to the road caused by the rollover accident.

Police Officer Scott Ruszczyk, who investigated, said Officer Jeff Silver, who is the police department’s commercial truck inspector, responded to the accident to inspect the vehicles.

Two heavy wreckers were used to right the flipped trailer and its aerial lift.

Because Church Hill Road is four lanes wide in that area, police were able to easily reroute traffic around the crash during the incident.

The truck and the trailer are owned by the Norbert E. Mitchell Company of Danbury, which is a fuel and energy firm. Mitchell workers cleaned up the fluid spill at the accident.

Police said that no enforcement action was taken. Police ask anyone who saw the crash occur to contact them at 203-426-5841.

The flipped trailer and its cargo were righted by about 5 pm. Emergency service workers left the accident scene about 5:30 pm.