A 42-year-old truck driver from Manchester, New Hampshire, was killed early Wednesday when his 18-wheeler slammed into another tractor-trailer parked on the shoulder of westbound Interstate 84, right at the New York-Connecticut state line. The crash near an off-ramp just east of the Putnam County border snarled traffic for hours, forcing drivers off the highway and onto local roads throughout Brewster and Southeast.
Jason Valarezo was driving a 2026 Volvo VNR tractor-trailer when he drifted out of his lane and struck the rear of a 2020 Freightliner Cascadia semi that was parked on the right shoulder near Exit 1, according to Daily Voice. Emergency crews from New York and Connecticut responded to the scene, where they found Valarezo with fatal injuries, according to Mid Hudson News. The 53-year-old driver of the parked Freightliner survived with suspected minor injuries and was transported by Danbury EMS to Danbury Hospital for evaluation, per Patch.
Overnight Impact Left Both Rigs Disabled
The collision happened at approximately 1:18 a.m., causing severe disabling damage to both tractor-trailers, which had to be towed from the scene, the outlet reports. The crash also knocked down an official I-84 West Exit 1 highway sign, adding to the cleanup work facing crews already dealing with two wrecked commercial vehicles on a narrow highway shoulder.
Westbound traffic on I-84 backed up for miles as crews reconstructed the crash scene, according to Mid Hudson News. Vehicles exited the highway in Danbury and used local roads to reach Route 684, and the same report notes that Brewster and Southeast saw severe congestion throughout the morning as commuters were rerouted around the closure.
State Police Seek Dashcam Video and Witnesses
The Connecticut Department of Transportation shut down the Exit 1 off-ramp from westbound I-84 following the crash, keeping it closed for hours while emergency crews worked the scene, according to FOX61. Connecticut State Police Troop A in Southbury assigned Trooper Nicholas Rocha to lead the crash reconstruction investigation, and the agency is publicly requesting dashcam video and eyewitness accounts from anyone who traveled I-84 West around the time of the crash.
Among the open questions in the investigation is why the Freightliner was parked on the shoulder near Exit 1 in the first place, and whether its driver complied with federal safety rules. Under 49 CFR ยง 392.22, commercial truck drivers who stop on a highway shoulder for non-traffic emergencies are required to immediately turn on hazard flashers and deploy reflective warning triangles or flares within 10 minutes to alert approaching traffic, according to the federal regulation as published in the eCFR.
A Dangerous Stretch of Highway
The crash adds to a grim national pattern: safety data compiled by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration shows that roughly 40% of all fatal large-truck crashes nationwide occur on interstate highways, where high-speed traffic passing shoulder-parked vehicles creates severe collision risks, per data cited by the Charles E. Boyk Law Offices. Interstate 84 through Putnam County and Danbury serves as a primary non-toll freight corridor linking New England with New York, Pennsylvania and the broader national highway network, meaning heavy commercial trucking runs through the area around the clock.
The stretch of highway near the crash site sits just east of a major interchange already under construction. The New York State Department of Transportation began a $24.5 million bridge replacement project last month at Ramp G, which connects westbound I-84 to southbound I-684 in neighboring Southeast, a junction that handles roughly 75,000 vehicles daily. That project adds another layer of complexity for drivers navigating the corridor while state police continue piecing together what led to Wednesday's fatal crash.
