ANTWERP, N.Y. (AP) - Police in northern New York say the driver of a truck that started a chain-reaction crash in a work zone that left six dead was alert moments before it happened.
State Police Investigator Rick Hathaway says the tractor-trailer driven by 45-year-old James A. Mills Jr., of Myerstown, Pa., struck several vehicles Thursday.
The line of cars had slowed or stopped where paving was being done on a rural stretch of highway. Five people, including four from the same family, died in an SUV that burst into flames. A state transportation worker whose truck caught on fire was in critical condition, and a woman whose SUV flipped over died at a hospital.
Hathaway says the early investigation shows Mills wasn't texting or talking on his cellphone before the crash.
Mills was taken to a hospital for toxicology tests and released.
Trooper Jack Keller says investigators are using a computer simulation program to determine how fast Mills was driving and other details of the accident.
