RUMFORD – A Vermont man was found dead early Tuesday morning after the empty tractor-trailer truck he was driving veered off Route 2 and crashed into trees at Rumford Center, Rumford police Chief Stacy Carter said Tuesday afternoon.
Carter said police are not sure if Jerry V. Welch, 49, of Bradford suffered a physical ailment that caused him to drive off the westbound lane, or if he died in the crash.
“We are waiting for a medical examiner’s report for cause of death,” Carter said.
Welch was driving a 2000 Peterbilt chip truck owned by Connecticut Valley Trucking Inc. of Orford, N.H.
According to a witness traveling behind the rig, the truck left Route 2 at 4:56 a.m. without braking while traveling downhill and around a sweeping curve.
Evidence at the scene showed the truck driving in a straight line, down an embankment, through a small drainage brook and uphill across a large field for several hundred feet.
It then hit a row of trees lining a cemetery.
Arriving officers, Patrolman Paul Casey and Sgt. James Bernard found the man dead inside the truck, Carter said.
Detective Sgt. Daniel Garbarini and State Police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Trooper Tim Turner also responded. Carter said Vermont State Police notified Welch’s next of kin.
Bernard estimated damage to the totaled tractor at $20,000. The chip trailer had minimal damage. Both were removed by M/T Pockets owner Dave Hodgson of Dixfield.
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