Tractor-Trailer Trucks Collide, Closing I-84 To Traffic

By Andrew Gorosko

An accident involving two loaded tractor-trailer trucks and an automobile resulted in a section of Interstate 84 closing to traffic for several hours early Monday morning, as work crews removed the strewn wreckage and cleaned up spilled automotive fluids from the highway.

The collision occurred near the sharp, banked curve to the right on eastbound I-84 where the highway is carried on two bridges over Hanover Road, the Housatonic Railroad’s freight line, and The Boulevard Extension, an area that has been the scene of many highway collisions.

The accident happened about 1½ miles west of the Exit 10 interchange. State Trooper Christine Jeltema investigated.

At about 12:34 am, tractor-trailer truck driver John Undercoffler, 47, of Mansfield, Penn., who was driving a flatbed 2003 Freightliner hauling a load of metal plates, stopped on the right lane of the highway for traffic ahead of him, which had stopped for road construction work up ahead. Nighttime construction work has been underway on I-84 for the past several weeks.

Tractor-trailer truck driver Donald Hawley, 51, of Danville, Penn., who was driving a 2006 Freightliner in the right lane hauling a load of plastic bags, then failed to slow for traffic conditions as he was negotiating the curve on the highway and collided with the rear end of the trailer being hauled by Undercoffler’s truck, state police said.

The impact pushed Undercoffler’s truck about 180 feet along the right road shoulder. The intense crash caused Hawley’s truck cab to become imbedded in Undercoffler’s trailer, officials said.

The crash caused truck parts to be strewn across both travel lanes of the highway, but the trucks’ cargoes did not fall off the vehicles, state police said.

Eastbound motorist Christopher Green, 35, of Waterbury, who was driving a 2007 Nissan Sentra in the left lane, then encountered the strewn debris, running over it and damaging the Nissan’s undercarriage, state police said. The Nissan carried passenger Arthur Sinclair, 43, of Waterbury, state police said.

The Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps transported Hawley to Danbury Hospital to be checked for chest pain, state police said.

State police Sergeant Robert Boroski said Hawley received an infraction ticket for failure to maintain a safe distance.

 The accident wreckage and the fluid spill cleanup resulted in state police closing to traffic for about four hours the section of eastbound I-84 lying between Exit 9 and Exit 10, the sergeant said.

The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) was alerted that automotive fluids had spilled on the highway, Sgt Boroski said.

Don Hutchins, the Hawleyville Volunteer Fire Company’s chief engineer, was one of the 11 Hawleyville firefighters who went to the accident. Firefighters worked at the scene to stabilize conditions, he said.

Engine oil, transmission fluid, and diesel fuel had spilled from the cab of Hawley’s tractor-trailer truck, which had driven into the trailer of Undercoffler’s truck, Hutchins said. Firefighters put absorbent materials on the pavement to isolate the spills.

After the scene was stabilized, the line of motorists who had stopped behind the three-vehicle accident was allowed to drive eastward past the accident, permitting the eastbound section of the highway between Exit 9 and Exit 10 to be cleared of traffic, Hutchins said.

Until the three vehicles involved in the crash could be towed away, other motorists traveling on eastbound I-84 were detoured off the highway at Exit 9 and onto parallel local roads, being allowed to return to eastbound I-84 at the Exit 10 interchange.

Newtown police assisted state police with traffic control during the incident.