A driver trying to pass a delivery van parked on the shoulder of Main Street in Glastonbury struck an oncoming vehicle Sunday evening, setting off a three-vehicle crash that left one motorist pinned inside a car and the roadway closed for more than an hour. Police say the Nissan sedan driver had to be extricated after the impact jammed a door shut, but was conscious and alert by the time rescuers pulled the vehicle free.
According to CT Insider, first responders were dispatched to the crash near the Stockade Road intersection just after 7 p.m., following a report from Glastonbury police Lt. Kevin Szydlo. The driver attempting to pass the parked van ended up striking an oncoming vehicle, triggering the chain-reaction collision, Szydlo said.
Crews worked to free the Nissan driver, whose car door had been pinned shut by the force of the crash. The driver was ultimately freed, found to be conscious and alert, and taken to a hospital for evaluation, per the same account from Szydlo.
Main Street Shut Down For Over an Hour
The crash site remained closed to traffic for roughly an hour and 15 minutes while crews handled rescue operations and cleared the scene, the report notes. As of Monday morning, the crash remained under investigation, with no further details released on how the collision unfolded or what led the driver to attempt the pass in the first place.
State law does draw a distinction for maneuvers like the one described in Glastonbury. Connecticut generally requires vehicles to drive on the right side of the road, but carves out an exception for drivers overtaking and passing parked or standing vehicles or other obstructions along the shoulder, according to Connecticut General Assembly statute. Whether that exception, or any other traffic law, applies to Sunday's crash has not been addressed by investigators.
Not the First Main Street Incident This Year
Sunday's crash is the latest in a string of incidents along the same Glastonbury corridor this year. In April, a single-vehicle crash occurred in the 2000 block of Main Street around 12:50 p.m., according to Lt. Szydlo's account reported by the New Haven Register. And in May, a crash on Hebron Avenue closed that road for hours and killed an 84-year-old man, police said at the time.
No information has been released identifying the drivers of the other two vehicles involved in Sunday's crash or whether anyone besides the Nissan driver was hurt. Police have not disclosed the Nissan driver's identity, the hospital where the driver was taken, or any update on the driver's condition following evaluation. The investigation into exactly what happened on Main Street remains open.
