One killed in Fairfield rest area crash

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (WTNH) -- State police are investigating a deadly accident at a rest area off I-95 in Fairfield.

It happened Wednesday night around 11:00 p.m. on the southbound side near Exit 22.

Authorities say 40-year-old Joseph J. Pierson, of 48 Congress St., Stamford, was traveling on I-95S approaching the Fairfield rest area in the center lane.

A second vehicle, operated by 61-year-old Frederick Walker, was traveling in the entrance lane into the southbound rest area.

Officials said a third vehicle, a tractor trailer, was parked improperly in a clearly posted no parking area on the left shoulder of the entrance ramp to the southbound Fairfield rest area.

The tractor trailer's driver, 39-year-old Joseph A. Eutesy, of 82 Sprague Ave., Middletown, NY, told police that he had parked the tractor trailer so that he could take a break in the sleeper berth.

Pierson's vehicle crossed from the center lane into the entrance ramp to the rest area and struck the right rear-end of the tractor trailer, and then the drivers side of Walker's vehicle. Pierson's vehicle finally came to rest partially under the tractor trailer.

Pierson was pronounced dead at the scene.

The incident remains under investigation.

This is the second incident like this in the past two weeks in Fairfield. On Dec. 1, a car hit a parked tractor trailer at the rest area on the northbound side of the highway. The truck driver, who was asleep, was killed.