MASSENA, N.Y. – A local man was killed east of here Tuesday night after his Jeep crashed in a tunnel under the St. Lawrence River locking system.
Christopher Sweet, 39, of Massena died after his Jeep Wrangler struck a concrete abutment entering the Dwight D. Eisenhower Lock tunnel, state police told the Watertown Daily Times.
The tunnel is an access point to the Robert Moses State Park and the St. Lawrence State Park, across the river from Cornwall, Ont.
Sweet was ejected from the vehicle and the Jeep was launched into the tunnel where it caught fire, police said.
The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
The crash caused some superficial damage to the tunnel, while the truck was destroyed by the ensuing fire.
With no witnesses, no nearby houses and no other vehicles on Barnhardt Island Road at the time (around 6 p.m.), an investigator suggested they don’t a lot to go on.
An autopsy and toxicology report are pending.