Updated: Pickup careens off Rt. 2 into Acton home; driver airlifted to hospital
No residents were hurt, Massachusetts State Police Trooper Leah O’Connell said.
A pickup truck hurtled off Route 2 and into a residential Acton neighborhood Saturday afternoon, coming to rest after plowing into an Abbott Lane housing development.
Massachusetts State Police Trooper Leah O’Connell said a preliminary investigation showed the truck, which was heading west, “struck a median barrier before crashing through a fence and into a condo complex.”
O’Connell said the male driver, who was alone in the vehicle, suffered “serious injuries” and was transported to a hospital by helicopter.
None of the residents were hurt, she said.
The Acton Fire Department was summoned to the Fairhaven development of townhomes and apartments at 3:45 p.m., according to a statement. Crews extricated the driver and provided medical help, assisted by Pro EMS.
Fairhaven resident Andrea Harthorne said she was trying to catch a nap when she heard what sounded like a door slamming.
She thought it might have been her daughter coming home from work. Then her husband and other daughter came upstairs.
“[They said], ‘The police just came and rang our doorbell and told us we need to grab sweatshirts and leave,’ and then they told me that a car had crashed into the other side” of the complex, Harthorne told The Bridge.
“They shut off all the electricity and everything because they have to make sure everything’s safe, like the gas lines,” she said.
She said she wasn’t sure when her family would be able to return to their home.
Harthorne said the development’s proximity to the highway has worried her in the past.
“The units are really close to Route 2, so I’ve always been concerned about it, because the traffic goes really fast,” she said.
Harthorne said accidents like these happen “way too often,” noting another recent Acton case of a vehicle striking a home.
“I just hope everybody’s OK,” she said.
MSP said their collision analysis reconstruction and crime scene services teams remained on scene with Acton’s building inspector as of 5:37 p.m.
CFD’s statement said electrical inspectors also headed to the complex, where one housing unit was “deemed uninhabitable” and the residents found temporary lodging.
This breaking story has been updated.
