A longtime Vermont State Police trooper was critically injured

BETHEL – A longtime Vermont State Police trooper was critically injured when his cruiser crashed into a stopped fire truck on Interstate 89 in Bethel on Friday morning. Patrol Cpl. Eric Vitali, a 19-year veteran with state police, was airlifted to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., after the 8:30 a.m. crash, officials said. The crash happened in the northbound lanes just north of the Bethel exit when the marked VSP cruiser struck a fire truck that was stopped on the highway after responding to a previous slide-off, spokesman Adam Silverman said. Vitali was headed to state police headquarters in Waterbury for first aid training, Silverman said. Cpl. Vitali was wearing his seat belt. The fire truck was unoccupied, and no one else was injured. Vitali, 41, joined the state police during the summer of 2005 and later graduated from the Vermont Police Academy in November 2005, employment records show.