A dump truck veered off the road and overturned after colliding with two SUVs in Lancaster on Tuesday, sending three people to area hospitals and shutting down part of Route 117 for hours. First responders were dispatched just before noon to 1539 North Main Street, where crews found damaged vehicles.
According to Boston 25 News, first responders were dispatched at 11:51 a.m. local time to the crash scene involving two SUVs and the dump truck. The dump truck sustained extensive damage after veering off the roadway and overturning, while one of the passenger vehicles involved suffered significant front-end damage, the outlet reported.
Three Victims Taken To Two Different Hospitals
One victim was taken to UMass University Campus in Worcester with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, per the same report. Two other victims were transported to UMass Leominster campus for treatment. The extent of their injuries beyond that detail was not specified.
The crash forced a closure of parts of Route 117 for several hours while crews worked the scene and cleared the wreckage. The roadway eventually reopened once the investigation and cleanup allowed traffic to resume moving through the area.
Dispatch District Coordinated Response Across Towns
The Nashoba Valley Regional Dispatch District handled multiple 911 calls as reports came in from the scene, and the district coordinated fire, EMS, and police resources from several surrounding communities to respond. Jon Belanger thanked the departments that provided mutual aid along with the emergency dispatch members who helped manage the response, the outlet's report noted.
The crash remains under investigation, and no additional details about its cause had been released as of the latest report. Lancaster's North Main Street crash is not the only recent Massachusetts incident involving a heavy truck and multiple vehicles. In a separate crash on Route 2 in Phillipston, a multi-car collision involving a logging truck injured eight people, according to CBS News Boston. In that incident, one person was airlifted to a hospital with traumatic injuries, five others were transported to local hospitals, and two people involved in the crash refused transport.
That Phillipston crash happened just before 10 a.m. as vehicles were heading west on Route 2, and it shut the highway down in both directions in Templeton and Phillipston for several hours while Massachusetts State Police investigated. Phillipston Fire Chief Jeffrey Parker said approaching vehicles could not see traffic stopped in a merge lane, which he said played a part in the crash.
