Head-on crash claims lives of two from Acton
The fatal crash occurred on Walden Street near Bristers Hill Road on Saturday.
A head-on collision claimed the lives of two Acton residents and sent three other people to the hospital last weekend, authorities said.
John Hamilton, 82, and Paula Hamilton, 85, were driving on Walden Street with two other family members — both 28 and from Tacoma, Washington — on Saturday afternoon when a Honda Accord collided with their Tesla Model 3, officials said Tuesday.
Preliminary findings suggest the driver of the Honda, a 25-year-old Wilmington man, crossed the double yellow line as the cars traveled in opposite directions and hit the Hamiltons’ car head-on, the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office said.
The fatal crash occurred on Walden Street near Bristers Hill Road, near the Acton-Carlisle High School street entrance, around 1 p.m., according to a press release.
EMT response
The couple was taken by medical flight to Lahey Hospital in Burlington, where they later succumbed to their injuries, the district attorney’s office said.
Their passengers were taken to a local hospital. One passenger remained in the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries Tuesday; the other had been released, the district attorney’s office said.
The Honda driver, whom authorities did not identify, was still in the hospital Tuesday afternoon.
The Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, Acton police, and the Massachusetts State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section are investigating the crash, which took place just over a half mile from the Hamiltons’ home.
A ribbon tied to a pole held a handwritten message — “Love, to all who suffer” — and a sheaf of pussy willows near the crash site Tuesday afternoon. Remnants of yellow caution tape fluttered from a traffic sign on the other side of Walden Street.
Acton police Capt. Brian Goldman called the Hamiltons, who lived across Walden from the police station, “a nice family [who] always would wave or say hi.”
He called their deaths “very tragic.”
The married couple bought their house in 2012, according to real estate records that identified the new owners of the home as John Hamilton and Paula Smith-Hamilton.
Neighbor Jeffrey Ward told The Acton Bridge that his family met them when they moved in.
“We were friendly with them,” Ward said in a phone interview. “They were very nice.”
Celeste Katz Marston contributed reporting.
This developing story has been updated.
