Goshen fire truck crashes on way to accident call

This story appeared in the Union Leader and was written by KRISTEN SENZ

GOSHEN – Three people were injured yesterday when first a speeding vehicle launched off one road and into a telephone pole, and then a fire engine called to respond crashed en route to the scene.

The driver of the fire engine, 53-year-old John Herr of Goshen, was traveling on Brook Road toward the initial accident scene on Province Road just after 4 p.m. when the truck's right tires went off the roadway, according to New Hampshire State Police investigators.

As the fire engine continued off the road, the cab released from the body of the truck and struck the ground, state police said. Herr, a member of the Goshen Volunteer Fire Department, told investigators he was communicating with fellow rescuers when the accident occurred.

"Herr reported that he was hanging the microphone back up when he noticed the right tires had left the pavement," State Police Sgt. Jayson Almstrom said in a press release.

Herr and his passenger, 71-year-old John Hopkins of Goshen, were transported to Valley Regional Hospital in Claremont. Herr was treated and released; Hopkins sustained a laceration to his head and has possible chest injuries, according to state police.

The vehicle in the original crash went off Province Road around 3:30 p.m.

The driver, 20-year-old Kyle Adams of North Springfield, Vt., was going an estimated 45 miles an hour in a posted 25 mph zone when the car "hit an embankment, basically went airborne, struck a telephone pole, splitting it in half, and then came to rest upside down," Goshen Police Chief Edward Andersen said.

The front-seat passenger, 18-year-old Glenda Marsh of North Springfield, Vt., was transported to Valley Regional Hospital by a Newport ambulance for treatment of injuries. Adams and rear passenger Pierce Reece, 20, of Perkinsville, Vt., were uninjured.

Andersen, a full-time sergeant for the New London Police Department, was not in Goshen when the accidents occurred. Police officer Duncan Domey investigated the first crash with the help of a Sunapee officer who reconstructed the accident, Andersen said.

New Hampshire State Police from Troop C in Keene were called in to investigate the fire engine crash, because it involved a town vehicle.

Neither Herr nor Adams received citations yesterday, but both accidents are under investigation.