A 24-year-old driver was killed Thursday evening after his pickup truck veered off a road in Dryden, New York, slammed into a tree and caught fire. The driver, identified as Chase Nash, was trapped inside the burning vehicle and could not be reached until firefighters brought the flames under control.
The crash happened shortly before 6 p.m. November 5, near the 100 block of Hurd Road in the town of Dryden, Tompkins County. Nash, who lived in Dryden, was behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck when the vehicle left the roadway.
The Tompkins County Sheriff’s Office said an initial examination of the scene suggests the truck drifted off the road before striking a tree. The impact left Nash trapped inside, and the vehicle subsequently caught fire.
The situation became even more urgent as emergency crews headed to the scene. Dispatchers alerted responding personnel that the pickup truck had become fully engulfed in flames, prompting firefighters to tackle the blaze when they arrived.
Dryden firefighters, assisted by other responding departments, worked to extinguish the fire. Once they had brought the flames under control, they located Nash inside the vehicle.
Authorities confirmed that Nash sustained fatal injuries in the crash. He was the only person inside the pickup truck, and investigators found no indication that another vehicle was involved.
Investigators are still working to establish what caused the truck to leave the roadway. So far, officials have not released any additional information about the circumstances leading up to the collision.
The fatal crash occurred in Dryden, a town northeast of Ithaca in central New York’s Finger Lakes region. Hurd Road, where the wreck happened, is now the focus of an ongoing investigation by the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Office.
Leave a Reply