PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Massachusetts State Police have cited the driver who struck a street sweeper Thursday evening on Route 3 South in Plymouth, just past exit 5.
The 49-year-old Norwood man, whose name wasn’t released, has been cited with operating a motor vehicle with a suspended or revoked registration, operating an uninsured motor vehicle, operating an unregistered motor vehicle, speeding, a marked lanes violation and a breakdown lane violation.
Barbara Jesse and her husband were returning from dinner when they witnessed the crash. The couple said the car passed by them in the high-speed lane, then drifted into the breakdown lane and slammed into the back of the street sweeper. Jesse’s husband and the driver of the street sweeper rushed to help the man trapped in the car.
"It looked horrible. My husband and the street sweeper driver broke the windows of the car to try to get to him," Jesse said. "It was a pretty bloody mess, so that was bad. He was unconscious, but kind of laying over."
It took firefighters about a half-hour to extricate the driver from his car.
Plymouth Fire Chief G. Edward Bradley said the man was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.
"He had blunt force trauma to his head, his chest, broken arms, severe bleeding to the head from lacerations we had to control and we know he had some internal injuries too," Bradley said.
The street sweeper was contracted by MassDOT, but wasn’t in an active work zone, so he was not protected by a police detail or cones.
The driver of the street sweeper suffered minor injuries.
The crash remains under investigation.
State Police didn’t have an update on the car driver’s condition Monday evening.
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