UPS truck crashes into Whitman College construction site

A parked UPS truck next to Patton Hall rolled backward into part of the Whitman College construction site Friday evening, getting lodged between a hill and a fence. No one was injured.

Part of Elm Drive was closed for about three hours after the 5:56 p.m. accident as Public Safety and UPS officials responded to the scene.

The cause appeared to be mechanical. The driver of the UPS truck was making a delivery to a Patton Hall resident and parked his truck with the handbrake active, said Public Safety Sgt. Alan Lawson.

"He [the driver] soon noticed the truck rolling down the hill and tried to run out and catch the truck, but it was moving too fast" Lawson said. The back of the UPS truck crashed into the fence and grassy area located north of the former tennis pavilion, right before the road behind Dillon Gymnasium.

Lawson said that when Public Safety officials inspected the truck, the handbrake was still on.

"There was some type of mechanic failure with the truck that caused the incident," Lawson said. UPS spokesman Bill Trikur reported that an investigation on the truck's malfunctioning is underway.

"The supervisor that was on site after the crash is conducting an investigation with our maintenance people," Trikur said.

The results of UPS' investigation will be available on Monday, Trikur said.

The accident is unlikely to have longterm ramifications, but it caught the site of many passersby this evening.

"Minimum damage was caused to the construction site," Lawson said. "We are very fortunate that the truck did not hit anything or anyone crossing the street."

Shortly after a Mother's Recovery Inc. tow truck arrived around 7 p.m., Public Safety cleared the area, fearful that the weight of the UPS truck would snap the chains between it and the tow truck. The UPS truck was successfully towed from the site.