Champagne-filled tractor-trailer crashes, snarls I-395 traffic
Griswold — Champagne was flowing but emergency personnel were not celebrating Wednesday following a tractor-trailer crash that closed Interstate 395 for nearly two hours and snarled traffic in the area into the evening hours.
The 2:15 p.m. crash involved a parked state Department of Transportation truck that was struck by a northbound tractor-trailer north of Exit 85, according to the DOT.
State police said the tractor-trailer, operated by William Wronski, 56, of Blackstone, Mass., was in the right lane and failed to move left for the construction pattern, striking the rear of the DOT truck.
The tractor-trailer rolled onto its side and spilled hundreds of cartons of Champagne, prompting response by the state police, local fire department and both the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and state Department of Consumer Protection.
The DOT vehicle involved in the crash was a "crash attenuation truck," which carries portable crash cushions that look like barrels attached to the back and was on scene to protect workers performing tree work in the area, according to a DOT spokesman.
Both Wronski and the driver of the DOT truck, 34-year-old James Tuttle of North Stonington, were taken by Griswold Ambulance to The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich with what state police described as minor injuries.
The DEEP called on an environmental contractor to clean up a diesel spill and to empty the saddle tanks on the tractor-trailer. The Champagne was collected by the Department of Consumer Protection.
Cleanup of the incident continued into the late evening.
g.smith@theday.com
Stories that may interest you
Police logs
Arrests by state and local police across the region
Norwich Police say convicted felon had assault rifle and pipe bombs in his home
Police said a search of a Prospect Street home also turned up high capacity magazines, a large cache of ammunition and body armor and required a call to the state police bomb squad.
Groton Town police said issue that led to neighborhood lockdown resolved peacefully
Town police said Monday said the despondent man at the center of a shelter-in-place order on Sunday did not pose a threat to himself or others.
UPDATED: Groton Town Police lift shelter-in-place order at mobile home park
Town Police have lifted a shelter-in-place order that was issued Sunday due to a report of a despondent man at the Long Cove Trailer Park at 1290 North Road, also known as Route 117.
READER COMMENTS