Monday was a rough day on eastern Massachusetts roadways, where a New Bedford man was killed in Plymouth and a New York City man escaped harm after his tractor-trailer caught fire in Newton.
It was a busy day for state troopers in the eastern part of the state, where a fatal car crash in Plymouth and a tractor-trailer fire in Newton forced road closures.Monday was a busy day on the roads for state police in the eastern part of Massachusetts, where a fatal wreck in Plymouth and a tractor-trailer fire in Newtown forced lane closures and shut an exit to the Massachusetts Turnpike.
Exit 16 westbound on the Turnpike was shut to traffic around 10:45 a.m., as public safety officials dealt with a tractor-trailer that spilled around 100 gallons of diesel fuel.
Police said the 37-year-old driver from New York City was uninjured. But the truck's fuel tanks ruptured from the heat, spilling diesel all over the roadway and destroying the vehicle. It took crews several hours to clean the mess before reopening the highway interchange around 4:30 p.m.
The truck, which was westbound on the pike at the time of the crash, was registered to Abilene Motor Express of Richmond, Va. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Shortly before 2:30 p.m. Monday, state troopers responded to a fatal crash on Route 3 in Plymouth, just north of Exit 3.
Police said Christopher E. Richert, 49, of New Bedford, was southbound in a 2001 GMC Sierra pickup truck that suddenly left the roadway and entered the center median, striking several trees and rolling onto its side.
Richert was killed in the crash, according to state police, who are probing whether speed or mechanical problems contributed to the crash. Police said Richert wasn't wearing a seatbelt.
The crash scene was cleared around 4:45 p.m., police said.