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Driver Was Checking Google Maps Before Truck Hit Bridge On Hutch

RYE BROOK, N.Y. -- A Florida truck driver was using his cell phone to get directions just before he slammed into the Hutchinson River Parkway King Street overpass in Rye Brook at the Connecticut-New York border on Tuesday, according to Westchester County police.

The Greenwich Fire Department puts out a truck fire on the Merritt Parkway.

The Greenwich Fire Department puts out a truck fire on the Merritt Parkway.

Photo Credit: Greenwich Police Department

“He told us he relied on Google maps on his cell phone,'' Westchester County police spokesman Kieran O'Leary said Thursday.

The fiery crash, spilling margarine along the parkway, resulted in closing the northbound Merritt and Hutchinson River parkways for about eight hours Tuesday.

Ishad Knight, 29, of Miami, Fla., should have been using a commercial-grade GPS program, according to O'Leary. Knight was issued four tickets including driving with an invalid Florida license.

The 11:20 a.m. accident at the King Street Bridge -- where there are several low-bridge warning signs -- triggered massive delays for motorists on the Merritt and Hutchinson River parkways.

The trailer carried liquefied margarine, making extinguishing the blaze more difficult for the Greenwich Fire Department.

Knight was driving from Maryland to Massachusetts. He reportedly checked a Google map program on his cell phone while driving along I-287 in Westchester, police said. The cell phone program told him to turn onto the Hutchinson River Parkway north in Harrison. Minutes later, hundreds of gallons of margarine coated the parkway and grassy berms.

The driver was issued four tickets by Westchester police, O'Leary said.

Knight also was ticketed for disobeying traffic control devices and driving a tractor-trailer on the parkway --which are open to passenger vehicles only.

He also got a ticket for driving a "too-tall vehicle" on the parkway, O'Leary said.

The Greenwich Police Department opened Glen Ridge Road to allow access to the northbound Merritt Parkway. 

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