Tractor-trailers collide on Thruway killing Utica truck driver, 54

State police identified 54-year-old Bruce Pietsch of Utica as the man killed in a tractor-trailer accident Wednesday morning on the New York State Thruway near Westmoreland. Pietsch was traveling west between the Utica and Westmoreland exits at 11:44 a.m. when he encountered a large truck tire, said Sgt. Martin Zubrzycki of the Thruway state police. Pietsch attempted to avoid the tire but struck it, losing control, smashing through a guardrail into the eastbound lanes and colliding with an eastbound tractor-trailer, Zubrzycki said. The accident closed eastbound lanes for more than eight hours – until 8 p.m. – while officials reconstructed the scene, removed debris and dealt with a substance leaking from one of the vehicles into the Mohawk River, Zubrzycki said. Pietsch was pronounced dead at the scene; the cause of death will... [read full story]