A Stamford man was killed late Wednesday in the second deadly tractor-trailer accident in as many weeks on I-95 in Fairfield.
According to the Fairfield Citizen, 40-year-old Joseph Pierson of Congress Street was killed when his Nissan Sentra struck the back of a parked tractor-trailer and the side of a Cadillac SUV at the I-95 southbound rest stop in Fairfield.
State police told the Citizen the truck was improperly parked on the left shoulder to the entrance ramp.
Fairfield emergency personnel arrived on scene at the accident shortly after 11 p.m. on Wednesday. First responders found the Nissan Sentra underneath the truck and extricated Pierson from the wreckage, according to the Citizen. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The truck was marked as carrying flammable liquids, Assistant Fire Chief Scott Bisson stated in a release. Fire personnel ensured there were no leaks of the chemicals from the truck in addition to the routine hazards of the accident. They remained on scene for two hours to assist State Police and the medical examiner with removal of the victim.
“This is the second fatal vehicle accident in the past two weeks where a tractor trailer parked in the rest area were struck by passenger cars from the highway," Bisson said.
On Dec. 1, a car struck a tractor-trailer on the northbound side of the I-95 rest area in Fairfield, killing the truck driver who had been sleeping in the cab.
The accident remains under investigation by State Police. For more information, read the Fairfield Citizen report.
