(Photo courtesy of Aaron Curtis/The Lowell Sun) Debris of all types is strewn over a wide area surrounding the scene of the crash on Westford Road in Tyngsborough that claimed the life of the driver of the car not shown in the photo. The car and the trash compactor truck at right collided Friday afternoon.

TYNGSBOROUGH, Massachusetts — The devastating crash involving a Toyota Corolla and a large garbage truck that claimed the life of one driver and injured the other remains under investigation, according to police Chief Richard Howe.

The collision, which left the Corolla nearly unrecognizable, caused heavy damage the front end of the truck and scattered a field of debris across a wide area, forced the closure of Westford Road for an extended period of time to allow investigators to conduct an on-scene investigation.

Howe said the Toyota driver was pronounced deceased at the scene. No charges have been filed, he added.

Responding to Tyngsborough’s request for assistance in the investigation were representatives of the office of Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan, state police detectives assigned to Ryan’s office, members of the Massachusetts State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section (CARS), and officers from the North Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (NEMLEC), a nonprofit law enforcement council of which 61 police departments in Middlesex and Essex counties, including Tyngsborough, are members.

Police have determined the Toyota was being driven at a high rate of speed at the time of the crash.

(Photo courtesy of Aaron Curtis/The Lowell Sun) The wreckage of the Toyota involved in the fatal crash on Westford Road in Tyngsborough on Friday is barely recognizable. Investigators work at the scene of the afternoon crash, part of which is behind the tarp they set up.

Police were on the way to a town residence on a check the well being call, and while enroute passed the Toyota, which matched the description of the car that the caller requesting the well-being check had given police.

Upon passing the vehicle, the officers turned around to try and stop the car to check on the driver, but Howe said the driver “allegedly drove off at a high rate of speed, make a right turn onto Westford Road, crossed the center line and subsequently struck the garbage truck head-on.”

According to an online story by Aaron Curtis, a reporter with The Lowell Sun newspaper, police quickly taped off the crash site as they arrived at the scene.

The crumpled Toyota could be seen off the road north of Potash Hill Road. The garbage truck, which Curtis wrote belongs to Republic Services, came to rest perpendicular to the roadway, and displayed significant damage to the front driver’s side.

Roughly four hours after the crash occurred, a flatbed tow truck pulled the wreckage of the Toyota from its resting spot.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.