OXFORD – Around 6 a.m. Wednesday in the Town of Oxford, a tractor-trailer careened across an intersection and collided with an embankment, flipping the trailer and burying the cab.

The trailer was heading west down county Rt. 35 and failed to stop at the traffic light intersecting state Rt. 12 just before the village line. The driver, Lewis Lopez, 40, said, “I lost my brakes coming down. I did everything I could to not hit anybody.”

The truck was heading to the North Norwich landfill, carrying construction debris. Lopez said he swerved to avoid a truck and then streaked through the intersection across Rt. 12, onto North Washington Street. The momentum carried his trailer off the roadway and sent the rig crashing into a steep embankment. “I’m just glad nobody else was involved,” said Lopez.