Painters narrowly missed after tractor-trailer crashes on bridge

JAMESTOWN – All westbound traffic in lanes approaching the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge was halted after the driver of a tractor-trailer heading toward North Kingstown lost control of the truck.

The tractor-trailer slammed into barriers set up to protect painters who were painting guardrails and handrails along the northern edge of the bridge, according to a representative of the painters.

The temporary water barriers were hit at about 1:45 p.m., according to a statement sent out by the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority later in the afternoon. Traffic was still stalled until after 5:15 p.m.

“The tractor-trailer went through 31 of those barriers and one of the barriers went into the bay,” said Justin Kelley, business agent for the Rhode Island Painters Union.

There were 12 to 14 painters working on the bridge at the time, he said.

“Everything we do on the bridge has an inherent danger and risk,” said Kelley, who was not on the bridge at the time but talked to a union steward who was.

The Daily News contacted Kelley after the union sent out a tweet saying “bridge painters were narrowly missed today by an out of control truck on the Jamestown bridge.”

“The painters were in the line of fire of the truck before the barriers stopped it,” said North Kingstown Deputy Fire Chief John Batzinger. “They were very fortunate.”

There were no injuries to the driver, painters or first responders, the deputy chief said.

After the truck came to a stop, the driver talked to the painters.

“He said he had never been in Rhode Island before and was distracted by the beautiful scenery,” Kelley said.

The painters offered to assist first responders, but “the Fire Department has its protocols,” he said. “They were good.”

“The ultimate take away for us is that we wish people would drive safer and slow down near work zones,” he wrote in a text after talking to a reporter.

RITBA, the bridge authority, said it was required to stop all traffic heading westbound, starting at the Newport Pell Bridge toll plaza, so that a tow truck could get to the tractor-trailer and remove it.

The tow truck had to go up the Jamestown Bridge in the wrong direction to remove the tractor-trailer, the authority said in a tweet.

Deputy Chief Batzinger said State Police arranged to have the tow truck remove the tractor trailer from the bridge. He said the North Kingstown Fire Department was called to the scene shortly before 2 p.m. and fire apparatus remained on the bridge until 4:42 p.m.

Before then, at 3:15 p.m. RITBA said in a tweet that one lane was reopened on the westbound side of the bridge and the toll plaza was reopened. However, that was apparently temporary because a driver reported after 5:15 p.m. that he had been stuck for more than two hours in the westbound lanes approaching the bridge.

Drivers posted photos on Instagram showing traffic at a standstill.

Police and fire personnel, as well as the authority’s maintenance crew remained on the scene until the late afternoon to assist.

“There are no injuries to report, and at this time, the cause of the accident is unknown,” RITBA said in a statement.

A state trooper at the Wickford Barracks said he could not comment because the accident remains under investigation. A dispatcher at State Police headquarters in Lincoln said a superior would get back to a Daily News reporter but that did not happen Friday evening.