Two residents of Tyngsboro were killed Monday when their minivan collided head-on with a full-size dump truck on Route 104 in Meredith, New Hampshire, sending both vehicles off the westbound shoulder. The 61-year-old man and 62-year-old woman were pronounced dead at the scene, while the 66-year-old truck driver was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries.
The crash happened at about 11:20 a.m. as the minivan was traveling east on Route 104 toward Lake Winnisquam, according to the Meredith Police Department, which shared a press release on the crash with the Lowell Sun Tuesday afternoon. Both the minivan and the dump truck went off the westbound shoulder in the collision, as reported by WCVB. Police have withheld the names of the man and woman who died, pending notification of next of kin, and said the release contained no further updates on the investigation.
Truck Driver Hospitalized After Crash
The dump truck driver, a 66-year-old man from Northfield, New Hampshire, suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries and was transported by ambulance to Concord Hospital, per the station's report. A New Hampshire Fish and Game conservation officer and bystanders who were on scene helped provide aid to the truck operator before he was taken away.
Crews worked for hours to pull the dump truck from a roadside ditch, with officials saying their priority was keeping the vehicle's diesel fuel from spilling, according to WMUR. The stretch of Route 104 between Pease Road and Corliss Road was shut down for several hours while crews cleared the scene, the outlet reported. The crash remains under investigation, and no cause has been determined.
A Stretch of Highway With a History
Monday's wreck is not the first serious crash reported on Route 104 in Meredith, a town in Belknap County that sits in New Hampshire's Lakes Region with views of both Lake Winnisquam and Lake Winnipesaukee. In 2024, an 18-year-old woman was killed and several others were injured in a separate crash in town, according to WMUR. A three-car crash near Corliss Hill Road on Route 104 sent three people to the hospital on a Monday afternoon in a prior year, as reported by the Laconia Daily Sun.
Nearly two decades earlier, a head-on crash on the same highway killed 63-year-old Janet Whitney when a minivan struck her vehicle, according to Fosters Daily Democrat. Police at the time said the minivan had crossed the center divide around 9:30 a.m. on a Wednesday but had not determined why it entered the oncoming lane. No such determination has been made public in Monday's crash, and investigators have not said what caused the minivan and dump truck to collide.
