‘Multiple’ Maintenance Opportunities Could Have Prevented Crash

A New Hampshire State Police report says maintenance on a tractor trailer on Interstate 93 wasn’t up to date when a tire came off and bounced across the lanes, causing a crash that killed a driver.

WMUR-TV reports police said numerous violations were discovered following their inspection of the truck owned by Crawford Homes and the trailer owned by Excel Homes Group, including cracked and missing brake linings, axels contaminated with grease, and tires carrying too much weight.

Police said wheel bearing failure led to the separation of the wheel and hub assembly.

They say there appears to have been “multiple opportunities” to prevent the crash. No one has been arrested or fined.

In the Sept. 18, 2013, accident in Hooksett, the tire hit a cruiser driven by the director of state police, Col. Robert Quinn, who wasn’t hurt, then bounced, causing a crash that killed 40-year-old Kerry Anderson-Baker of Concord.

Anderson-Baker, who was driving to her job at Lawrence General Hospital in Lawrence, Massachusetts, was married and had three children.

“I think losing a child has got to be the worst thing in the world,” said her mother, Carole Anderson. “It’s so unnatural. It’s not supposed to be this way. We’re not supposed to bury our children. Our children are supposed to bury us.”

A scholarship fund has been set up for Anderson-Baker at the hospital.