New Haven - The 128th edition of a long rivalry was marred Saturday by a fatal tailgating accident about two hours before Harvard beat Yale 45-7.

A driver of a U-Haul truck carrying beer kegs through a tailgating area suddenly accelerated, fatally striking a 30-year-old Massachusetts woman and injuring two other women, police said. New Haven Police spokesman David Hartman said the driver was in police custody.

Once the game started, Harvard continued its football dominance over Yale, spotting the Bulldogs an early touchdown before scoring 45 unanswered points. The football series is the third longest in the country.

Having already clinched its 14th Ivy League championship the previous week, Harvard (9-1, 7-0) has now won 10 of its last 11 games with Yale, including five straight.

Harvard's 45 points were the most scored by the Crimson against Yale (5-5, 4-3) since it won by the same 45-7 score at Cambridge in 1982.

"The last two times we played Yale, we really got out with our life," Harvard coach Tim Murphy said. "We expected that type of game today.

"This is a really good football team we have," he continued. "We just got on one of those rolls today. Very rarely is a rivalry game this one-sided, but it was just one of those days when we hit on all cylinders. It just all came together today. It was our day."

More than 55,000 turned out for contest dubbed as, "The Game." Spectators in Yale Bowl were told of the accident at halftime and were asked to stand for a moment of silence. The incident occurred at a tailgate party in a parking lot across the street from Yale Bowl.

Harvard had the best early scoring chance, driving the length of the field with the opening kickoff. Yale then got the first big break of the game when Crimson quarterback Collie Winter fumbled at the Bulldogs' four-yard line and Yale recovered the loose ball in the end zone.

It was about the only mistake made by Winters, who ran for one touchdown and completed 27 of 43 passes for 355 yards and two touchdowns as the Crimson rang up 506 yards total offense.

Yale then took its only lead of the game when quarterback Patrick Witt completed a 24-yard touchdown pass to Jackson Liquori at the end of a 47-yard drive, giving the Bulldogs a 7-0 lead.

"We got beat by a better football team today," Yale coach Tom Williams said. "That team is bigger and stronger and faster. They've got good players at every position. They were the better team today. They're the best team in our league, the best team we've played this year, and it showed. We did not do our best, and that was the difference for the discrepancy in the score."