Firefighters Rescue Driver after Tractor Trailer Crash on I-95

At 0448 hrs on June 14, 2010, the Milford Fire Department Emergency Operations Center received a telephone call from Milford Police Department reporting a major traffic accident on Interstate 95 Northbound near exit 40. Engines 1, 5, 7, Tower 1 and Rescue 1 were dispatched to the scene. When units arrived on the scene they found three tractor trailer trucks that had collided into each other.

One driver ( 55 y/o male) was trapped in the last truck in line. Firefighters from Engine 1 and Tower 1 began using the Hurst Tool “Jaws of Life” to open the doors and displace the dash board so that the patient could be removed from the cab. The extrication took approximately ten minutes and then the patient was transported to Yale New Haven Trauma Center.

The middle truck was a tanker carrying liquid latex. A small amount of product had come out of the dome covers because of the impact of the collision. The driver of the tanker was also transported to Yale New Haven Hospital for evaluation. No other injuries were reported.

Fire Department personnel quickly switched to a “Haz-Mat” mode and began to contain the leaking diesel fuel and the latex. The Department of Environmental Protection was called to the scene and also a commercial cleanup contractor responded to assist in the cleanup.