New Haven, CT — A dump truck driver died this Tuesday morning (September 23, 2014) after a fatal accident along Interstate 91 in New Haven. It happened when the dump truck’s raised bed crashed into a overpass on the interstate, police said. The driver of the truck, 50-year old Dave Chavanees, was killed in the accident.
The police reported that Chavanees was driving his dump truck south along I-91, where it merges onto I-95. The bed of the dump truck was raised up for some reason, they said, and it struck the Exit 1 overpass as Chavanees was taking that off-ramp.
The dump truck swerved off the exit ramp, hitting a concrete structure in the process. Chavanees was ejected during the accident and was critically injured. After being taken to a nearby hospital, he died.
Though traffic was closed in the area until after 10:00 a.m. that morning, no other injuries were reported.
Scene of the Accident
Commentary:
The biggest question I have here is, “Exactly how did this dump truck’s bed come to be raised up in the first place?” I’m guessing that this truck driver was intimately familiar with how tall his truck was and would notice if he didn’t have enough clearance as he exited the highway. Obviously, I could be wrong, but I wonder if there was something wrong with the truck bed? Did it raise up prematurely? Again, this entire accident could have just been because the driver misjudged a distance, but I want to give him the benefit of the doubt before assuming any guilt.
— Grossman Law Offices
