A tragic incident took place on Friday night in rural New Hampshire when a pickup truck struck and killed seven people along with injuring three on motorcycles.
The crash burst into flames initiating a small fire in a neighboring wooded area and left a wreckage of crushed broken vehicles along with the bodies of victims scattered across the highway.
As per to the State Police statement, a Dodge pickup truck with an attached flatbed trailer which was large enough to tow a car was moving towards the westbound when it got hit into the motorcycles, which were moving towards the eastbound, on Friday around 6:30 p.m., along U.S. 2 in Randolph.
Well, the names of the victims have not been revealed yet, but the police identified the driver as 23-year-old man Volodoymyr Zhukovskyy, of West Springield, Mass., who survived this deadly incident and has not been charged.
Police also stated that there were three other motorcyclists that were injured and one of whom was airlifted to a local hospital soon after the fatal crash.
The investigation had started immediately and still, the authorities are investigating what caused the fatal crash. Some of the witnesses also reported seeing the truck changing the direction just before it hit the bikers.
The bikers moving towards the eastbound also comprises of members of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club, which includes active and veteran Marines. They were actually on their way to a bike gathering hosted in northern New Hampshire, which is a large motorcycle gathering that concluded last weekend, said Charlie St. Clair, executive director of the Laconia Motorcycle Week Association.
He also said, “I can’t emphasize enough how horrific this is,” added, “It’s our worst nightmare.”
Cat Wilson, who organizes a motorcycle charity event in Massachusetts said, “When something like this happens, we all feel it.” Wilson is a friend of some of the crash victims, “There is no tighter community than our biker community.”
As per to an online fundraiser set up for the families of the victims stated that the group was on a charity ride connected to an American Legion in Gorham, N.H.
Doug Hayward, who is a member of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club wrote, “Jarheads MC has always been about helping veterans and their families and sadly, today we are in need of that same support,”
As per to Hayward who stated that out of the total number of victims the five of them were members of the club, and two of them were the supporters.
Beatrice Engstrand who is a neurologist and was staying at a nearby bed-and-breakfast, when the incident occurred, she was the first responder to the scene.
Engstrand said, “At least three bikers were thrown into the woods, and there were flames over 20 feet high. The motorcycles were all chopped up all over the roads, and there were bodies everywhere and people crying.”
She further added, “There was death everywhere, people in extremis, people crying. Complete devastation. A lot of tension in the air.”
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu told the reporters that the deadly incident “clearly struck our state and our citizens in a very serious way.”
Along with the statement Sununu also pleaded for the privacy of the families of the victims to be respected. He said, “God bless them all.”
