Merrimack Man Involved in Fatal Crash

A 27-year-old Lynn, Mass., man was killed in an accident on Interstate 93 in Somerville, Mass., on Monday afternoon after a truck being driven by a Merrimack man lost its cargo smashing into the victim's car.

Troopers from the State Police Barracks in Medford, Mass., responded to I-93 northbound near exit 29 at 2:59 p.m., in response to the accident. According to a press release from Massachusetts State Police, a 2005 Freightliner M2 flatbed truck being driven by Gregory Ross, 62, of Merrimack, was traveling southbound with a cargo of four solid-core truck tires – approximately 400 pounds each – loaded onto a wooden pallet and secured with a single strap.

A preliminary investigation by Trooper Joseph Kalil indicates the load became unsecured and one tire fell off the truck, bounced on the roadway crossing the median andsmashing into the windshield of a 2003 Mitsubishi Gallant being operated by Joseph LeBlanc of Lynn, police say.

The car continued traveling northbound and cane to rest on the driver's side between the northbound and south bound guardrails. The vehicle came to rest on the driver’s side.

According to an article on Somerville Patch, "At approximately 3:15 p.m., first responders extracted the victim using the jaws of life and took him to a hospital in Boston, according to and radio transmissions broadcast at the time. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital, police say.

The truck is registered to Ryder Truck in Braintree and was leased by Sullivan Tire.

The crash remains under investigation by Troop A of the Massachusetts State Police with the assistance of the State Police Collision Analysis Reconstruction Section, the State Police Crime Scene Services Section, the State Police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Unit, and the Middlesex County State Police Detective Unit. Troopers were assisted at the scene by the Somerville Fire department and the Department of Transportation's Highway Division.

During the course of the investigation the two far left northbound and the far left southbound lanes were closed for approximately 90 minutes causing significant traffic delays