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Two hurt in bucket truck rollover

By Dean Shalhoup - Senior Staff Writer | Apr 5, 2019

AMHERST – Two Eversource employees are recovering from injuries they sustained when the truck they were in left Route 101 early Thursday morning, rolled over and pinned them inside.

The employees, both believed to be men, were not identified by either police or Eversource officials. Both were trapped in the vehicle for a time, according to on-scene reports.

Indications are one occupant was rescued a short time later, while crews worked for more than an hour to free the other one.

A Dartmouth-Hitchcock Advanced Response Team (DHART) medical helicopter was dispatched to the scene and landed nearby, but both men ended up being transported by ambulance to Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, reports stated.

The injuries the men sustained were considered serious, but weren’t believed to be life-threatening, officials said.

Later on Thursday, Eversource officials reserved comment, other than to wish the employees well and say there were no other vehicles involved.

“Our thoughts are with our employees involved in the accident in Amherst early this morning,” spokeswoman Kaitlyn Woods wrote in a brief statement later Thursday.

“A review of the accident is ongoing, and no other details are available at this time.”

Amherst police Capt. Anthony Ciampoli said it appears driver fatigue “was most likely an issue” in the cause of the crash, which took place about 6:30 a.m. on Route 101 near Pine Road in the northeast part of town.

“It appears the vehicle just veered off the road unexpectedly, on a relatively straight portion of Route 101,” Ciampoli told news media at the scene.

He said the truck came to rest in a gully, which, he noted, is typically filled with water at this time of year – making it likely the cab of the truck would have been underwater.

Many Eversource crews were out responding to outages beginning Wednesday, the result of strong, gusty winds toppling trees onto power lines across the region.

Police closed both lanes of Route 101 briefly, but once the employees were rescued, they were able to open one lane, alleviating at least somewhat the buildup of early-morning rush-hour traffic.

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