Vermont trucker suspected in fatal hit-and-run

A Vermont tractor-trailer driver was in custody and a teenage pedestrian dead following a traffic accident north of the Vermont Border, the Quebec Provincial Police said Tuesday afternoon.

Police credit the U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel with intercepting the tractor-trailer driver at an international border crossing in Essex County, Vt., earlier in the day.

They said the driver, who name was not released, appeared to be unaware that he might have hit a pedestrian.

The name of the 19 year old was being withheld to allow time for police to notify his family, police spokeswoman Christine Coulombe told the Burlington Free Press.

She said the dead man was found about 4 a.m. Tuesday in Saint-Malo, Quebec., along Route 253, which connects to Vermont 253 at the international border at Beecher Falls in northeast Vermont.

"He was hit by a tractor-trailer, but the driver left the scene," Coulombe told the Free Press.

She said the suspect vehicle was found at the American border crossing.

"We were on the lookout," U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Sean Smith told the Free Press. The vehicle was turned over to Canadian authorities, he said.

Smith said U.S. Border personnel had been placed on alert to check for a tractor-trailer that might have been involved in the fatal hit-and-run.

Smith said the U.S. border personnel work cooperatively with Canadian law enforcement.

The driver is in his 50s, Coulombe said.

"He is now with investigators," Coulombe said.

"We do not know what time the accident happened," she said. She said more information will be released Wednesday.

Contact Mike Donoghue at 660-1845 or mdonoghue@freepressmedia.com