MA Tow Truck Driver Hit By Drunk Driver

Let's keep 30-year old Charles Solimine in our thoughts. While readying a car for towing, Solimine was hit by a Toyota being driven by a 59-year old man who was arrested and charged with drunken and reckless driving.

Here's the story from the Taunton Daily Gazette:

A tow truck operator was taken by MedFlight to a trauma unit in Boston after being struck by a drunk driver on Liberty Street at about 8:30 Friday night.

According to police, Charles Solimine, 30, of Union Street, was in the process of attaching a vehicle to his flat-bed tow truck when he was hit by a Toyota SUV. The driver, Antonio Resendes, 59, of Liberty Street, was unable to respond to initial questioning from police at the scene and was later arrested and charged with drunk driving (with serious bodily injury) and reckless driving.

Solimine was taken by ambulance to Morton Hospital before being flown to the intensive care unit at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

A friend who visited Solimine on Saturday said he sustained multiple injuries after he was crushed between the black Acura on his truck and the gray Toyota 4Runner driven by Resendes. Witnesses said the flatbed was tilted when the accident occurred.

Doctors operated on Solimine to treat injuries that included a broken hip, broken ribs, several leg fractures, significant knee damage and a punctured lung. He was expected to require extensive physical therapy as well as additional surgery as part of his recovery.
Solimine is an employee of Mike’s Towing and Recovery in Taunton.

After failing a field sobriety test, Resendes was arrested and taken to the police station were he registered .20 percent blood-alcohol content after taking a breath test. The state limit is .08 percent. He told police he had consumed three beers and a shot that evening.

tfaulkner@tauntongazette.com