Thirteen people were injured and seven hospitalized after a flatbed truck smashed through a fence and slammed into the side of a residential education program in Massachusetts Sunday morning.
The truck drove sporadically as it rushed towards the building, mowing down a fence before scraping alongside the building and taking out several windows before finally smashing into the lobby of Shriver Job Corps Center in Ayer.
The truck also dented a gas main, which complicated firefighters’ efforts on the scene as they also had to “work aggressively to get the gas under control,” Devens Fire Chief Timothy Kelly told CBS News.
Some of the injured were students enrolled in the Shriver Job Corps Center, a federally funded education and training school for students in need between the ages of 16 and 24 who are either in poverty or have experienced other hardships like abuse and homelessness.
“Luckily, there were not a lot of students in the building at the time. The injuries, so far as we know, were fairly minor,” Kelly told the outlet.
The driver of the red truck was airlifted to a nearby hospital for treatment alongside six others injured during the crash.
Another six people were treated at the scene by medical personnel from the school, Kelly told Boston 25 News.
The victims’ exact affiliations with the program are unclear — though several are believed to have been students.
The Massachusetts State Police took over the investigation and assured that, so far, they’ve found no indication that the crash was done on purpose or that the Job Corps Center was targeted in any way, CBS News reported.
The Post reached out to the Devens Fire Department and the Massachusetts State Police for clarity.
The Jobs Corps program, which has centers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, is at risk of being shut down by the Trump Administration. President Trump has attempted to shutter the 60-year program, but the move was blocked by a US district judge.
The truck collision is just one of multiple shocking crashes to take place this week.
Last Saturday, at least 30 people were injured after a driver suddenly drove into a crowd outside a nightclub in California. The driver was ripped out of the car and beaten by other bystanders before someone else at the scene shot him in the back.
Last Friday, one person in Washington state made off with a firetruck and went on a joyride where they steamrolled over a whopping 16 parked cars. Somehow, no one was injured, and the suspect was still on the loose as of Sunday.
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