COLUMBUS – An 85-year-old West Edmeston man was airlifted to Syracuse by an emergency helicopter after his car struck the back of a parked 18-wheeler Thursday.

At around 1:30 p.m. yesterday, Kermit G. Spooner was heading west on County Route 25 in the Town of Columbus when his Chevy Lumina unexpectedly swerved across the yellow divide line and hit a parked truck. The tractor-trailer was in a lot across from a yogurt manufacturing plant owned by Agro Farma, where it was heading to be loaded with a shipment.

New York State Trooper Benjamin Barton said the trailer’s rear bumper was partially extended into the opposite lane from Spooner and was unoccupied at the time of the collision.