Semi Involved In 2 Collisions Before Barreling Into Hyde Park Bar

HYDE PARK, NY — A truck driver is dead and two people inside a destroyed building are lucky to be alive after a hair-raising crash Monday morning.

Police have now identified the driver who was killed and the victims who somehow managed to escape serious injury.

Shortly before 11 a.m., the Hyde Park Police Department was dispatched by Dutchess County 911 to 504 Salt Point Turnpike for a report of a two-car auto accident with a partial building collapse. When police arrived, they found a 2020 Peterbilt tractor operated by Craig Allen Dickson, a 33-year-old man from Hopewell Junction, had crashed through the building.

SEE: 1 Dead, 2 Hurt After Semi Truck Smashes Junior's Lounge

The tractor, owned by MJD Construction from Pawling, was pulling a fully loaded dump trailer. The truck was partially through Junior's Lounge on the ground floor of the building. The building was heavily damaged and was being held up by the dump trailer, according to officials.

The owner of Junior's Lounge, Louis C. Rossi, was inside the bar when it was struck. There was an upstairs tenant identified as Sarah Dempsey sleeping in the front apartment. The crash caused her to be carried out of the building along with her bed coming to a final rest on the top of the tractor trailer. Rescuers found her in rubble on top of the truck. She was taken to Mid-Hudson Regional Hospital and treated for minor injuries.

The events leading up to the crash are still being investigated, but investigators believe the driver of the tractor trailer was involved in a crash in the City of Poughkeepsie at the intersection of Weed St. and Smith St. The tractor trailer left the scene of that auto accident and continued East from Smith St. to Salt Point Turnpike.

Witnesses reported the tractor trailer was driving erratically and went into the westbound lane of traffic several times on the Salt Point Turnpike. The Peterbilt continued east on Salt Point Turnpike and just west of Junior's Lounge, was involved in a collision with a 2021 Toyota Highlander operated by Kimberly C. Glatz of Hyde Park. The impact caused the Toyota to overturn and come to rest on the south shoulder of the roadway.

Investigators said the Peterbilt appears to have over-corrected or was deflected from that crash and went off the south shoulder of the roadway and struck the building before eventually coming to rest inside the building.

The pub owner was extricated from the vehicle and taken to Vassar Hospital for evaluation. Remarkably, Glatz did not suffer any major injuries.

Dickson, the driver, was killed in the crash. The Dutchess County Medical Examiner's Officer pronounced Dickson deceased at the scene. The building was deemed unsafe to be occupied by the Town of Hyde Park Building Department and was torn down by Amity Construction.

The crash is still actively being investigated by the Hyde Park Police Department, New York State Police Commercial Vehicle Unit and the New York State Police Accident Reconstruction Investigators.

Anyone with any other information about the incident or who may have witnessed any erratic driving prior to the crash is asked to call the Hyde Park Police Department at 845-229-9340.