Waterbury crews among responders to overnight I-89 van rollover

April 22, 2021 | By Lisa Scagliotti 

First responders from 10 agencies including Waterbury were called out early Thursday morning when a van carrying a crew of second-shift workers home to Burlington from Morrisville overturned on Interstate 89. 

The accident happened just after 1 a.m. and involved a 2018 Ford Transit van owned by the Vermont Employment Agency in South Burlington. The van carrying a driver and 13 passengers was northbound at mile marker 68 on I-89 in Bolton when the driver lost control due to icy road conditions, according to Vermont State Police. 

“The vehicle traveled into the median of the interstate and overturned in the southbound lanes,” Trooper Brandon Sweet explained in the news release. He said that the vehicle landed facing southbound in the southbound passing lane, resting on the driver’s side.

The driver, 53-year-old Ikumi Munanga of Burlington, was wearing a seatbelt. Sweet’s report noted that it was snowing at the time and road conditions were icy.   

The accident was one of many on Vermont highways in the past 24 hours due to mid-week spring snow squalls. None so far have resulted in serious injuries. A three-vehicle crash on Wednesday night on I-89 in Richmond involved one driver from Waterbury and destroyed a vehicle that caught fire. On Thursday, highway closures happened around the state due to accidents including several involving tractor-trailers -- one jack-knifed on I-89 in Berlin. In Barnet, a state Agency of Transportation snow plow went off Interstate 91, landing on its side.   

Trooper’s translating skills come in handy

The early morning crash in Bolton Thursday shut down the southbound lanes of the interstate for approximately an hour and a half. Although none of the injuries were life-threatening, the response and transport that followed involved numerous first responders. 

The state police news release credited the following local agencies that assisted with the call: Waterbury and Bolton fire departments; and ambulance crews from Richmond, South Burlington, Williston, UVM, St. Michael’s, Stowe, and Waterbury.   

A Waterbury Fire Department crew assisted in freeing one passenger who was trapped. They “used hydraulic tools (spreaders and cutters) and electric saws to gain access to the one patient that was still in the van,” Fire Chief Gary Dillon said.

Language skills of rookie state Trooper Omar Bulle were a helpful asset at the scene where he was able to help emergency crews communicate with the shaken and injured passengers, according to state police Sgt. Brandon Doll. 

The van was transporting mechanical assembly workers on their way home from Manufacturing Solutions Inc. in Morrisville. The group was made up of new Americans who speak Swahili, police said. Assigned to the Williston state police barracks, Bulle is a recent graduate of the Vermont State Police Academy who came to Vermont as a child and refugee and now is a member of the Somali Bantu immigrant community. Like the workers in the van, Bulle also speaks Swahili. 

Vermont Employment Agency owner Lilian Pacovici said having a trooper with language skills on the scene was very fortunate. “It was very scary to everyone. Thank God everybody is OK,” he said. “He speaks the same language and was able to translate.” 

Pacovici didn’t want to discuss the totaled van which can be replaced. “We have other transportation,” he said. “What matters is the people. They are people who rely on our help to get to work. This was the first time anything like this has ever happened to us.” 

The private employment service offers transportation for workers it helps with job placement, in this case shuttling employees from the Burlington area to the manufacturing facility in Lamoille County. 

“They love their jobs and like their employer,” Pacovici said. Given the circumstances, everyone involved would get a couple of days off to recover from the highway scare. On Monday, Pacovici said he will check in with the crew. “Everyone will be asked if they want to come back,” Pacovici said. “I would understand. I might not want to go back after that.” 

He said he hoped that everyone in the group -- a mix of men and women from their 20s to 40s -- would return. The agency would also be willing to help anyone who might want to switch to something closer to home after the episode, he added. 

Before anyone was transported from the scene of the crash, UVM Medical Center was alerted. Hospital spokesman Neal Goswami said the number of individuals involved in the accident prompted the hospital to activate mass-casualty event procedures in the Emergency Department. The steps include activating the blood bank and ensuring there is a surgeon on site, Goswami said. “We make sure we have enough resources on hand,” he said.

Things went smoothly from there. “We evaluated 12 people,” Goswami said. Most had minor bumps and bruises with two of the patients having more serious injuries. 

State police said the two most seriously injured had back pain and a leg injury. Pacovici on Thursday afternoon confirmed that none of the individuals involved were still in the hospital. 

Pacovici said his company was thankful to the emergency crews from so many communities that went out in the middle of the night. “That’s the nice thing about Vermont -- everybody helps out each other,” he said.  

Fiery crash also blamed on icy roads

Earlier in the evening shift, Trooper Bulle responded to another crash blamed on icy road conditions not far from where the van accident occurred. 

Just before 8:30 p.m., troopers got word of a single-vehicle crash on Interstate 89 south in Richmond near Exit 11. While responding, they were notified that two more vehicles had collided into it. Police reported that when they arrived on the scene, the third vehicle in that chain was fully engulfed in flames. The highway was briefly shut down while a Richmond Fire Department crew extinguished the vehicle fire. 

The investigation found that the chain of events began when a 1998 Toyota 4 Runner driven by 29-year-old Courtney Walton of Killington was traveling south and, due to icy road conditions, collided with the guardrails. Walton’s vehicle came to rest in the travel lane of the interstate when it was struck by a 2020 Subaru Outback driven by Kayla Steen, 32 of Waterbury.  Steen was able to move out of the travel lane, police said. A third vehicle, a 2000 Ford Ranger driven by Jesse Sawyer, 25 of Vergennes, next collided with the 4 Runner and caught on fire. 

All of the drivers were wearing seatbelts; none were injured, and neither impairment nor distracted driving were contributing factors, police said. The 4 Runner and Ranger were both totaled; the Subaru had minor damage, police said. 

Rescue and police from both Richmond and Williston responded to the crash along with state police. 

The weather was snowy and road conditions were snowy and icy when these and other incidents have occurred in the past two days. State police remind drivers to slow down when driving in poor weather conditions.