More Than 150 Trucks Participate In Tribute To Wilmington Teen

WILMINGTON, MA -- The moving memorial organized by friends of Atley Miller saw a convoy of more than 150 trucks accompany his funeral procession through Tewksbury and Wilmington Saturday morning. Miller, 15, of Wilmington, was a Shawsheen Technical High School student who died in an ATV crash on November 19. Miller was a truck enthusiast, prompting his close friend Connor Grabowski to organize Saturday's convoy.

The trucks ranged in size from pickup trucks to semis, with municipal trucks from surrounding towns sharing the road with trucks from local trucking companies. The trucks started staging in Tewksbury early Saturday morning. The procession followed the funeral procession from St. Williams Church in Tewksbury, where onto Middlesex Avenue and to at St. Thomas of Villanova Church in Wilmington, where Miller's funeral mass was held.

Grabowski had received permission from Miller's family, the Tewksbury and Wilmington Police Departments and the funeral home. "We've been been asking anyone with a pickup truck, tow truck, utility truck, semi truck, dump truck -- anything -- to come to his...funeral," Grabowski said earlier this week when he contacted Patch to help get the word out.

Wilmington Patch broadcast a live video of the procession on its Facebook page Saturday morning. At its peak, more than 800 people were simultaneously watching the Facebook Live video. To see the full procession, fast forward the video below to the 40-minute mark. The funeral procession passes by, followed by the more than 150 trucks that were part of the tribute:

More on this story:

• Friends Seek Truck Drivers To Help Honor ATV Crash Victim (11/21/2017)
• Wilmington Victim In Tewksbury ATV Crash Identified (11/20/2017)
• Wilmington Teen Killed In Tewksbury ATV Crash (11/19/2017)

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Photo and video by Dave Copeland.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).