Trucker Choked On Cookie Before Major Accident

By Andrew Gorosko

A tractor-trailer truck driver, who was involved in a serious accident last week, was choking on a piece of food while driving when he lost control of his truck on South Main Street, ran off the road and careened about 100 yards before coming to rest atop a cliff overlooking a ravine that carries the Pootatuck River, police said.

Mid-afternoon on February 5, truck driver Felipe Moderno, 34, of Trumbull was driving an approximately 25,000-pound rig, comprised of a 1999 Freightliner tractor hauling an empty garbage trailer, southward near South Main Street’s intersection with Bryan Lane, while snacking on a cookie, police said.

Moderno told police that he choked on the cookie and then started to cough, after which he blacked out. Also in the truck’s cab was passenger James Holko, 41, of Stamford.

As it was approaching a broad curve to the right near Sand Hill Plaza, the out-of-control truck continued traveling straight, crossed into the northbound lane of South Main Street, broke through five cable-linked guard posts, knocked down several trees, smashed into a compact concrete AT&T telecommunications equipment building and then smashed into some larger trees atop the cliff overlooking the Pootatuck River, near Homestead Lane.

Police officers Jeff Silver and Douglass Poole investigated the crash. Officer Silver is the police department’s commercial truck inspector.

Officer Silver said that Moderno never used the truck’s brakes before the vehicle stopped. The sequential impacts eventually caused the truck to slow and stop.

Had the truck’s trailer been loaded with garbage, the rig would have weighed up to 80,000 pounds, Officer Silver said.

The accident could have been much worse had the truck collided with a northbound vehicle on South Main Street before it exited the road, Officer Silver said.

Following the accident, Officer Silver inspected the truck. He said he found three brake violations on the truck, but none of them directly contributed to the accident. Moderno was driving the truck while doing business as Phil’s Transport, LLC, of Trumbull.

Both Moderno and Holko were transported to Danbury Hospital after the crash, where they were treated for injuries and then released.

The truck left South Main Street just south of the United Water Company’s pump house for its public water supply. After it left the road, the truck smashed into a corner of an AT&T equipment building that could have exploded had it been hit squarely, officials have said.

The truck also leaked some diesel fuel and hydraulic fluid, resulting in fire officials calling the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to the scene to inspect for environmental damage. The accident occurred in the heart of the town’s environmentally sensitive Aquifer Protection District (APD), above the Pootatuck Aquifer. United Water draws its water supply from that underground water source.

Among its many impacts, the truck struck and upended a security fence that protected the AT&T building. One of the heavy fence stanchions penetrated the truck’s front windshield, nearly impaling Moderno.

Botsford firefighters extricated Moderno and Holko from the wrecked truck.

Officer Silver said Moderno received two infraction tickets for the accident. The violations are failure to drive to the right on a curve and distracted driving. The distracted driving charge stems from Moderno’s eating a cookie while driving.