WALPOLE, Mass. — Police say an oversized truck carrying one-hundred-foot steel beams was backing into KW Steel Structures when an oncoming car crashed right into those beams hanging off the back of the truck.
“It’s just amazing how that poor man is still alive,” said Gilbert James, who witnessed the crash.
Walpole Police said the 70-year old driver was flown to the hospital with serious injuries after those beams crushed the top of his car. He was driving down School Street in Walpole when he crashed.
Now Walpole Police are looking into whether the safety cars or ‘spotters’ were doing their job while this truck was backing up.
“You can see the color of [the beams], and the officer noted that when he got here. The sky was gray just because of the overcast and everything,” Chief John Carmichael said. “And it’s likely he didn’t believe the operator even saw the beams until the impact occurred.”
“Our officers did note when they first got here that they didn’t see the vehicles in close proximity to the flatbed, so that will be part of the investigation,” Chief Carmichael said.
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KW Steel Structures General Manager Harry Webster said they’re not responsible for the trucks transporting their beams.
“We weren’t involved with the transportation at all, we just did the beams. A customer would send a truck in,” Webster said.
Webster said his business follows the town’s zoning code, but neighbors are fed up with the noise and traffic from this steel company.
“I hate to see this happen to anybody,” said Dave Lynch, who lives nearby. “This type of business just shouldn’t be allowed in this type of neighborhood.”
Lynch said neighbors have filed zoning violation complaints against the steel company, and there’s a zoning hearing in Walpole later this month.
“They’re trying to say the use is consistent with previous operations and it’s totally not,” Lynch said.
Boston 25 News has reached out to the trucking company, which is based in Pennsylvania, but they have not responded yet. The crash is currently under investigation by the Walpole Police Department Crash Reconstruction Unit and the Massachusetts State Police Truck-Team.
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