Five members of a Derry family on their way to Manchester-Boston Regional Airport to travel to San Diego, Calif., for Thanksgiving went instead to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries after the SUV in which they were traveling was involved in a collision with a dump truck near The Yard restaurant on Rockingham Road (Route 28), near the Manchester line.
According to Londonderry Police Detective Chris Olson, Crystal Iaci, 31, was driving a blue 2013 Honda SUV and her fiancé, Erik Piermattei, 35, was sitting in the front passenger seat, with three children in the back seat. Olson declined to name the children because they are minors.
A red 2002 Ford F650 dump truck driven by Brandon Ellis, 25, of Pheasant Run, Hudson, N.H. and owned by Camco Landscape Co, LLC, Hills Ferry Road, Nashua collided with the Honda at about 1:43 p.m. Monday, Nov. 25. Rockingham Road was closed while the crash was investigated, according to police reports.
“Manchester Fire department got the call first and when we arrived, it was noticed that it was a glancing collision, in that the driver’s side of the SUV and the driver’s side of the dump truck both had damage. If it had been a head-on collision, there would most likely have been a fatality,” Londonderry Fire Battalion Chief Jim Roger said.
Roger said three ambulances were used to transport the family to the Elliot Hospital in Manchester.
“We wanted to keep them together so they were transported to the Elliot. There was a mother, father, a 12-year-old boy and a set of twins I’d say between 6 and 8 years old,” Roger said.
“This really had the potential to be a fatal crash,” he emphasized. “Both parties were extremely lucky. The (dump truck) driver said that he didn’t need medical treatment and one of our guys checked him out. I know that the police took him to the hospital for a blood test.”
Roger said one ambulance from Manchester, one from Londonderry and one from Bedford provided transport.
Police reports say that the driver of the dump truck, Ellis, is facing possible charges.
“One area of the investigation is regarding whether or not the dump truck driver was properly licensed,” the report said.
The incident remains under investigation.