DOT truck crashes down embankment

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A state Department of Transportation tractor-trailer sits at the edge of the Naugatuck River after crashing through the guardrail of Route 8 southbound and careening down an embankment in Naugatuck on Monday. The crash is under investigation. -CONTRIBUTED

NAUGATUCK — A state Department of Transportation tractor-trailer pulling an excavator on a flatbed veered off Route 8 southbound and crashed down an embankment Monday morning.

The accident occurred at about 11:40 a.m. between Exit 29 and Exit 28. State police said the tractor-trailer was in the right lane when it veered off the highway for an unknown reason. The truck crashed through the guardrail, barreled down an embankment and came to uncontrolled stop against a tree, just feet from the Naugatuck River, state police said.

The driver, 59-year-old Eugene Francis Casivant Sr. of Southbury, was taken to Waterbury Hospital and treated for minor injuries, police said.

The DOT and Department of Energy and Environmental Protection responded to the scene to clean up and remove the truck, trailer and excavator. State police said no fuel tanks were breached during the crash and the river wasn’t contaminated.

The crash is under investigation.