LONGMEADOW — A fatal crash claimed the lives of a driver fleeing from police and a U.S. Postal Service worker making morning deliveries around a busy neighborhood along Route 5 at the state line on Thursday.
Witnesses said the mail carrier, who had just been chatting with customers on his route moments before the crash, was making a legal left turn from Booth Street onto Route 5 when a tan pickup truck ran a red light and plowed into the postal worker’s truck at an estimated 80 miles per hour. At least three Enfield police cars were in pursuit of the pickup, witnesses said.
Motorists and employees of local businesses described a deafening crash that sounded like a bomb went off. They offered accounts of an explosion of metal that sent the vehicles flying into the air. Both trucks caught fire and flames shot about ten feet high, burning for approximately two to three minutes, witnesses said.
was stopped at the red light, heading south,” said Enfield resident Jim Webb, who was bringing his 97-year-old mother on morning errands. “I looked just a little to my left and saw this gold-colored truck crash into the mail truck, and it was like they were just picked up off the ground.”
A car door went hurtling by his driver’s side window and over his car, he said. He described the impact as “a literal explosion,” with a fiery aftermath.
“It’s the first time in my life I’ve seen anything like that, and I won’t forget it any time soon,” Webb said.
Emergency officials have yet to identify the driver of the pickup truck, who began fleeing from Enfield police around 11:15 a.m. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service declined to identify the employee early Thursday afternoon, but described the incident as “tragic.”
Police radio communications reviewed by The Republican Thursday offer a window into the minutes before the crash, as officers followed the pickup truck for about two miles on Route 5 in Enfield.
“Stop that truck right now. Stop the truck. Stop that truck! Get the plate number, call it in,” an officer is heard saying.
“Trying to catch up,” another voice says moments later. Yet another describes the vehicle: “Tan truck, and it came really quick.”
A male officer relays that the vehicle is heading north on Route 5 in the area of High Street in Enfield. A female officer then says she is approaching Alden Avenue, and that the vehicle is “still not stopping,” running a red light at the intersection. Then: “Blowing the light” at Parker Street, she says.
A male voice says, “Crashed at the line.” The female officer says: “Yeah, it’s bad. … Get me a medic.”
As of Thursday afternoon, police had not released information about what prompted the pursuit.
While the chase began in Enfield, the collision occurred at a peculiar, slanted boundary where the traffic intersection is divided between two states. For instance, a Pride Station on one side of the intersection has a Massachusetts address while Longmeadow Motor Cars directly across Route 5 has an Enfield address.
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