20-year-old driver dead after car crashes into fence in Salem

A 20-year-old man died Sunday evening in a single-car crash in Salem, police said. 

The Salem Police Department said officers responded to the serious crash on Puritan Road around 6:18 p.m. Video from the scene captured by WCVB shows an SUV that had apparently struck a fence in front of a home. A large hole is visible in the car’s windshield. 

Police said the driver, Salem resident Kory Ouellette, died from his injuries.

A witness, home improvement worker Vinny Valenti, told NBC10 Boston he was working nearby when he heard the crash.

“I ran out and there was a whole 12-foot pole, the top of the fence, it went through the windshield, through his neck and out the back window,” Valenti told the news outlet, a description corroborated by police scanner recordings posted on Broadcastify. 

He said he tried calling Ouellette’s family but couldn’t unlock the driver’s cell phone, so he sat in the passenger seat and held Ouellette’s hand until an ambulance arrived, according to NBC10. 

“I just told him, ‘Keep breathing, keep breathing. Gotta breathe, kid. Gotta breathe, kid,’” Valenti told NBC10. 

The crash is under investigation by the Salem Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division and the Massachusetts State Police Accident Reconstruction Team.