By Conor Berry
The Berkshire Eagle
SANDISFIELD, Mass. — Speed and slick road conditions appear to have been factors in a Sandisfield car crash that left five people hospitalized Monday.
The victims, all from New York City, were southbound in a 2001 Isuzu Trooper that left Route 8, traveled up an embankment and crashed into a utility pole around 12:50 p.m., according to a Massachusetts State Police spokesman in Framingham.
The crash shut down a section of Route 8 near Alan Road in Sandisfield for about two hours, causing backups in both directions. By 2:50 p.m., truck driver Ozzie Bartlett and dozens of other motorists stranded along a lonesome stretch of Route 8 bordering the Farmington River were wondering how they’d reach their destinations in Connecticut, New York and beyond.
“Nothing you can do,” said Bartlett, who was resigned to the fact that he couldn’t turn around his tractor-trailer on the narrow, two-lane stretch of slush-covered roadway.
Bartlett, who works for Bozzuto’s Inc., a Cheshire, Conn.-based wholesale food distribution company, had been eastbound on Route 20 before turning south on Route 8, a tortuous stretch of roadway winding through eastern sections of South Berkshire.
But the Monday afternoon crash brought his delivery route, which includes sections of upstate New York, to a grinding halt.
“This is just a typical day of driving a truck,” Bartlett said.
Other motorists weren’t as understanding, however, expressing frustration that public safety officials didn’t detour traffic farther north of the Sandisfield crash site. Most drivers only learned that a southern stretch of Route 8 was impassable after coming to a complete stop in a long line of backed-up vehicles, including cars, SUVs, box trucks and tractor-trailers, most of which had Connecticut and New York plates.
Although some managed to pull U-turns and head north on Route 8 in search of other travel options, most seemed to settle in for a long wait.
“How am I going to get home,” an older man from Connecticut said with frustration in his voice. “This is ridiculous.”
A Connecticut woman said she was unfamiliar with alternative routes to reach her Waterbury home.
Sandisfield Fire Chief Ralph Morrison said Route 8 was impassable while officials were tending to the injured and clearing the accident scene. Sandisfield firefighters were assisted by Otis and Monterey fire crews, and several ambulance companies from the Berkshires and one from Connecticut carried victims to area hospitals.
The driver of the Isuzu, 33-year-old Jazmine E. Solero, was trapped inside the wrecked vehicle and had to be extricated by rescue workers. Solero was then rushed to Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington, Conn., with serious injuries, according to authorities.
Her passengers — 28-year-old Jazmine Nesbitt, 24-year-old Tiffany Nesbitt, a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old — were all transported to BMC in Pittsfield.
State police said the victims’ injuries were believed to be “potentially serious,” but their conditions were unknown Monday night.
"[Solero] had serious injuries,” said Morrison, who was unable to be more specific.
“People need to learn to slow down when the weather is storming,” the chief said.
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