Highway fatality: Log truck driver killed on Interstate 91
By Reformer Staff
Posted: AUGUST 18, 2015
NORWICH, VT
A log truck driver was crushed by another log truck and killed on Interstate 91 at 3:15 p.m. Monday.
According to a press release from the Vermont State Police, David Stefanik, 54, of Shalimar, Fla., was driving a tractor trailer truck north on the highway when his vehicle became disabled with flat passenger side rear trailer tires. Stefanik moved his truck into the breakdown lane and had placed out his hazard markers behind his vehicle. Initial reports indicate he was standing at the rear driver side of the truck, possibly examining the tires when a fully loaded log truck driven by Mason Morissette, 23, of Woodstock, Maine, sideswiped Stefanik and his tractor trailer killing Stefanik.
An investigation conducted by the Vermont State Police Crash Reconstruction Team determined Morissette had a minimum of a quarter-mile straight line-of-sight distance of Stefanik's disabled tractor trailer. He told investigators that he never saw the hazard markers or Stefanik but a witness to the accident indicated that Morissette had ample room to move into the passing lane prior to the collision and failed to do so, and actually drifted into Stefanik's disabled tractor trailer.
Morissette was subsequently arrested and cited with grossly negligent operation with fatality resulting. Morissette was processed at the Hartford Police Department and released on a citation ordering him to appear in criminal court on Tuesday, Sept. 29.
In addition to the Vermont State Police and the crash reconstruction team, the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles, the Vermont Medical Examiners Office, Hartford Fire and Rescue and the Norwich Police Department responded to the scene. The northbound lanes of the highway were closed for several hours following the crash.