Westfield teen dies in I-91 crash, third local death in a month

Three teenagers from Westfield have died in motor vehicle crashes within the past month, local officials confirmed.

Edward Kelly, a Westfield resident, was killed on Thursday, October 29, when his car struck a concrete bridge support in the median of Interstate 91 in Whately, according to the Northwestern District Attorney's Office.

Emergency crews responded to the scene near mile marker 32.2 in the northbound lanes at approximately 3:20 p.m. Investigators stated that Kelly's vehicle veered off the highway into the median before colliding with the concrete pillar and catching fire. Kelly died at the scene and was the only person inside the vehicle.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is currently determining the specific cause of death. Detectives from the Massachusetts State Police, assigned to the Northwestern District Attorney's Office, are leading the investigation into the crash.

Kelly's death follows the fatal accidents of two other Westfield teens earlier this month. On October 9, Oleksandr Petrovskyi, 18, died in a crash on Main Street in Agawam at 7:30 p.m. Police indicated that speed may have contributed to that incident.

The first of the three deaths occurred on October 2, when Lexani Velazquez, a Westfield teen, died after a wreck in Easthampton. Velazquez was a passenger in a car that crashed near the rotary at Park Street and South Street around 1:15 a.m., authorities said.