Unconscious Man Airlifted After Rt. 23 Truck Crash

A male driver was unconscious when he was pulled from a smashed truck and airlifted to Morristown Medical Center following a truck crash off of Route 23 South Wednesday evening.

Police were on the scene of the parking lot of 1395 Route 23, where the truck's face appeared to have collided with a pole, shortly after 5 p.m. Sgt. Mike Moeller, of the Butler Police Department, said only the single truck was involved in the crash and no passengers were in the vehicle. Shattered glass from the windshield covered the ground and crime scene was wrapped around the truck, which had a Safeway Piano Movers logo on the side.

Moeller said a preliminary investigation shows the driver may have veered off of Route 23 South from the middle lane and into the pole in the parking lot. A medevac helicopter landed at the Richard Butler School around 5:45 p.m. and transported the driver to Morristown Medical Center. Moeller said he was in critical condition.

Mike Heidtman, a warehouse manager at Fuda Tile, a business located next door to the parking lot where the crash occurred, said he heard a loud noise when the truck made impact with the pole.

"I just heard a loud band. I don't know, it didn't even sound like a crash," he said.

Heidtman said the noise was more "like a dump truck" backing into something. He and his co-workers ran outside to see what had happened. 

Butler police and Butler and Bloomingdale Volunteer Fire Department officials were on the scene, as well as members of the Tri-Boro First Aid Squad, who transported the driver to the medevac helicopter.

Patch will have updates on this story.