Passersby Help Tractor-Trailer Driver Out of Fiery Rollover

A tractor-trailer rollover caused heavy delays on Interstate 91 North in Wallingford during the morning commute.

The truck flipped over near exit 15 around 4:30 a.m. and went up in flames.

People who had been passing by helped the truck driver, Dominique Phill Jenkins, 26, of Philadephia, Pennsylvania, out of the truck and an ambulance transported him to Yale-New Haven Hospital to be treated for minor injuries.

The right and center lanes were closed for hours and crews investigated and cleaned up fuel that spilled on the highway. That led to bumper-to-bumper traffic building up during the morning commute.

“It was a heck of a trailer turned over over there. Lots of traffic.” Ed Sagnella, of New Haven, said. 

His commute, which typically takes 20 minutes, took an hour and 15 minutes. 

“(T)here was no chance to get off. I was past (exit) 14 and then that was it,” he said. 

Rob Maraday, of Wallingford, said he was able to avoid the highway, but the back roads were also congested because people were using them to get around the crash. 

“So being that I had to get to KinderCare here, I back-tracked through the back roads to get here,” he said. “It was horrendous. Everybody was turning around. Nobody was getting on the highway because it was totally jam packed.” 

The truck was towed from the scene. State police are investigating the cause of the crash.

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