Overloaded trailer is blamed in accident

A pickup truck was towing an overloaded trailer when it caused a multiple-vehicle accident Thursday afternoon that closed westbound Route 32 in Howard County for several hours and sent four people to the hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries, according to Howard County police.

A Ford Ranger was hauling a flatbed trailer carrying a Bobcat front-end loader.

The trailer and the construction equipment weighed a combined 9,220 pounds, said Pfc. Jamie Myers, a spokesman for police, well over the 3,700-pound weight limit of the trailer hitch, Myers said.

The trailer and Bobcat were put on a scale at a state police weigh station on Interstate 70, Myers said.

"The driver lost control because of the combined weight of the trailer and Bobcat," Myers said. "The trailer came unhitched."

Myers did not release the name of the pickup's driver because charges had not been filed against him.