Two crashes on I-89 include one fatality; vehicle, train traffic affected
June 27, 2024 | By Lisa ScagliottiUpdated on June 30 with the identity of the deceased driver.
Two crashes on Interstate 89 on Wednesday included one fatality and impacted highway and train traffic south of Waterbury.
Driver identified in fatal crash
It was a Barre man who died in a two-car crash on Interstate 89 in Montpelier Wednesday evening. Vermont State Police on Saturday updated their report on the incident to say that the deceased driver was 50-year-old Jason Ball.
The crash shut down the southbound lanes for about two and a half hours, according to police. Troopers from the Berlin Barracks and the Vermont State Police Crash Reconstruction Team responded shortly after 7:30 p.m. to I-89 southbound near Exit 8 in Montpelier.
The investigation found that a 2015 Chevrolet Malibu driven by Ball was traveling north on I-89 when it crossed the median into the southbound lane and struck a 2016 Honda CR-V head-on. Ball was not wearing a seat belt and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said, adding that the vehicle had no other occupants and it was totaled.
The driver of the Honda was identified as 46-year-old Kelly Pelletier of Plainfield who was taken to Central Vermont Medical Center for treatment for serious but not-life-threatening injuries, police said. Pelletier was wearing a seat belt; her vehicle also was totaled, police noted.
Investigators are still looking to determine the reason why the Chevrolet left the northbound lanes. Weather and road conditions at the time were both clear, according to the report. Troopers ask that any members of the public with information that could help investigators contact the Berlin barracks at 802-229-9191.
Middlesex and Montpelier fire departments and personnel from the Agency of Transportation assisted state police at the scene.
The Amtrak Vermonter train waits alongside the Waterbury Train Station on Wednesday after rail traffic was halted in Middlesex due to a crash on I-89 in which a truck landed on the train tracks and needed to be removed. Photo by Jim Frisk
Truck from crash blocks train tracks
Earlier on Wednesday morning, traffic on I-89 southbound in Middlesex was slowed down after a crash involving a commercial box truck and a pickup truck.
No one was seriously injured in that incident, but it resulted in the highway being reduced to one open lane and train traffic on the nearby tracks was halted in order for the involved vehicles to be removed and the tracks inspected, officials said.
According to investigators, at approximately 8:39 a.m. a commercial box truck southbound on I-89 near mile marker 57 in Middlesex went off the right side of the road and hit a pickup that was stopped in the breakdown lane.
“The force of the crash pushed the disabled vehicle into the ditch. The box truck left the roadway and came to a position of rest on the adjacent railroad tracks about 30 yards from the southbound I-89 travel lanes,” the crash report states.
The Amtrak Vermonter waits beside the Waterbury Train Station on Wednesday. Photo by Jim Frisk
The pickup’s one occupant sustained “apparent non-life-threatening injuries” and the commercial vehicle driver was not injured, officials said.
One southbound lane of the highway was closed and the railroad tracks were closed to train traffic for five and a half hours until the scene was cleared, officials said.
The morning southbound Amtrak Vermonter passenger train was delayed due to the incident. In addition to four crew, Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams said 34 passengers were aboard and they were able to disembark.
“The stop at Waterbury turned out to be a bit of a good surprise, as it gave passengers time to check out the station – including visitor center and the coffee shop/bakery,” passenger Jim Frisk wrote in an Amtrak Vermonter Facebook group. His account included photos at the Black Cap Coffee & Bakery cafe and the Waterbury visitors center room inside the station. “Finally after 3.5 hrs., the track was cleared and we were on the move again.”
Amtrak passenger Jim Frisk captured this image of the commercial vehicle getting hooked up to a wrecker after Wednesday morning’s I-89 crash in which it came to a stop on the railroad tracks in Middlesex.
Transportation officials confirmed that the tracks were cleared and reopened for rail traffic to resume shortly after 1:30 p.m.
The Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles is conducting the crash investigation. The DMV news release about the crash did not include details on the drivers of either vehicle. Printing on the commercial truck indicated that it was from Lakeside Container Corp. which is based in Plattsburgh, New York.