MASSACHUSETTS TROOPER, STATE ROAD WORKER HURT IN CRASH
A State Police officer and a state Highway Department truck driver were seriously injured yesterday on a road detail on Interstate 495 in Middleborough when a tractor-trailer rammed the highway truck and then hit the trooper's cruiser, which was parked with its lights flashing. The trooper, Michael Fitzgerald , was flown to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston with serious injuries, according to a written statement from State Police. Fitzgerald, who was sitting in the cruiser, was spared from facing the full force of the tractor-trailer when Kevin Sullivan , the driver of the Massachusetts Highway Department truck, turned his vehicle to protect the trooper. Sullivan, 59 , of Carver, was taken by ambulance to Good Samaritan Hospital in Brockton with serious injuries.The 1:45 p.m. accident on southbound I-495 near Exit 4 forced officials to close that side of the highway for about an hour. According to a preliminary investigation, Fitzgerald's cruiser was parked in front of the MassHighway truck in the right travel lane while the road was being repaired. Emergency lights of both vehicles were flashing. Police said a loaded 1995 Mack tractor-trailer came down the right travel lane, heading for the truck and the police cruiser. Sullivan moved the truck to protect Fitzgerald, and the Mack hit the highway truck before ramming the cruiser. The highway truck flipped over the guardrail and rolled into the woods, police said.
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