Driver Dead After Tractor-Trailer Destroys N.Y. Business, Knocks Sleeping Woman's Bed Onto Truck: Police
A man died and a woman was injured after a tractor-trailer crashed into a local bar and grill in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Craig Allen Dickson, 33, of Hopewell Junction, was killed Monday when his 2020 Peterbilt tractor partially plowed through Junior's Lounge, according to Hyde Park police.
The truck, which was "was pulling a fully loaded dump trailer" at the time of the crash, the department said in a news release. "The building was heavily damaged," they wrote, noting that the structure was "being held up by the dump trailer."
A woman, identified by police as Sarah Dempsey, was injured when the bed she was sleeping on was knocked onto the top of the truck. Police said she was transported to Mid-Hudson Regional Hospital in Poughkeepsie with minor injuries.
A second person and a cat were also in the building, but were uninjured, according to ABC affiliate WACB-TV.
The Dutchess County Medical Examiners Officer pronounced Dickson dead at the scene of the crash.
The building impacted by the crash was torn down after being deemed unsafe by the Town of Hyde Park Building Department, Hyde Park police said.
WABC-TV shared footage featuring various images of the building following the collision, including shots of the immediate aftermath. The station also showed images from the bar's interior security cameras, which captured Lounge owner Louis Rossi walking through the bar moments before disaster struck.
Investigators believe Dickson was involved in a separate crash before his truck crashed into Junior's Lounge.
Witnesses claimed to have seen the tractor trailer "driving erratically" and entering the westbound lane of traffic on Salt Point Turnpike "several times" prior to colliding with a 2021 Toyota Highlander, which flipped over, police said in the news release.
The operator of the Toyota, identified by police as Kimberly C. Glatz of Hyde Park, was extracted from her car before she was transported to Vassar Hospital for evaluation. Police said she "did not suffer any major injuries."
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Shortly after leaving the scene, Dickson's truck soon crashed into the Lounge, police said, noting that the truck "appears to have over-corrected or was deflected from that crash" when it veered off the south shoulder of the Turnpike and hit the building.
Junior's Lounge, known to some as the Cheers of Poughkeepsie, had been operating at 504 Salt Point Turnpike since 1981, per WACB-TV.
Though the building no longer remains, Julia Rossi hopes her father's business is not gone forever.
"After 40-plus years, we never thought this was how we would go out," she told the outlet. "So I don't think it's the end. I hope it's not the end, at least."
An investigation into Monday's incident is ongoing, according to Hyde Park police.
