Two People, Including Tow Truck Driver, Tossed in the Air After Truck Hits Them

A tow truck driver and another person were tossed in the air after they were struck by a vehicle on North Street on Tuesday morning.

Salem police said it started when three cars crashed near the intersection of North and Bryant streets at 9:38 a.m. Nobody was injured but the airbags went off in one of the cars and it had to be towed away.

Bill’s Towing was called to take away the damaged vehicle.

When the tow truck arrived, both the tow truck driver and one of the drivers involved in the original crash were standing alongside North Street at about 10:20 a.m., in the breakdown lane, according to police. That’s when a pickup truck driving east on North Street (toward downtown Salem) hit the tow truck driver and the other driver, “throwing them several feet in the air,” according to a police report.

The vehicle that needed to be towed after the first crash had been pushed by police and its driver off onto Bryant Street, but the two people that were hit were standing near another vehicle involved in the original crash on North Street, according to police.

The woman who was driving the truck that struck the two people said she saw the blue lights on the police cruiser and the veered off the road. Then she tried to hit the brakes but did not do it in time before hitting the two people and a parked car.

Two witnesses - one who was driving the opposite direction on North Street and another who had been a driver in the original crash - both told police they saw the truck hit the two people.

The pickup truck driver that struck the two people, Kathleen Giusto, was issued a summons for negligent operation and marked lanes violation, according to police. She was not hurt.

The two people were struck were taken to the hospital by Atlantic Ambulance.