Boston Car Accident Lawyer Blog
We previously blogged about a Danvers, MA man involved in a collision with a plow truck on Interstate 95 last Tuesday. Now, the plow truck driver has come forward to give his account of the accident.
Howie Lane of Essex, MA was parked in the breakdown lane before Exit 47, watching his co-worker move snow with a front-end loader. They were operating under a private contract for the state. Suddenly, 35-year-old Franco Carullo drove a 2008 Jeep Wrangler into Lane’s plow truck. “He went from 55 miles per hour, 60 miles per hour, to nothing,” Lane said. “We couldn’t understand how the guy hit us.”
Lane jumped out of his vehicle after the impact, slipped and fell to the ground, and then hurried over to the crashed Jeep with his co-worker. They saw Carullo inside, and it appeared he was unconscious. They tried to enter, but the doors were locked and they couldn’t open the windows.
Lane smashed the window with a hammer, which allowed them to open the door. They had difficulty freeing Carullo from the vehicle because the deployed airbag had pinned the seatbelt against him. While they were struggling to unbuckle Carullo’s seatbelt, flames began to engulf the vehicle. “I never felt so useless in my life,” Lane said. Lane said this experience convinced him of the importance of always carrying a knife.
Their persistence paid off when they finally unlatched Carullo’s seatbelt. “When that seat belt released, I felt like I hit Megabucks,” Lane said. Then the two dragged the unconscious Carullo, whose legs were broken and pants on fire, to a safe distance from the car, shortly before it burst into flames. “As we dragged him out, the car blew up,” Lane said.
“I was just relieved we got him out,” Lane said. “It turned out good, but I got to tell you, when it was all going down, it was bad. It was a bad deal.”
According to Lane, Carullo regained consciousness minutes later, asking “Is this my Jeep?” Carullo responded, “You can forget the Jeep. The Jeep is junk. It’s burned to a crisp.”
Carullo communicated that he might have fallen asleep while driving, Lane said.
Emergency responders arrived at the accident scene by 2:05 a.m. An ambulance brought him to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Massachusetts Car Accident Attorneys
The Massachusetts car accident attorneys of Altman & Altman LLP have been representing injury victims for over 40 years. If you or a loved one has been hurt in a motor vehicle accident, please contact us at 617-492-3000 or by email for a free case evaluation. You might be entitled to compensation.
Source: Essex plow driver in fiery rescue, www.gloucestertimes.com, February 15, 2013.
