Massena man killed in crash

BRASHER FALLS — A Massena restaurant owner was killed Thursday morning in a head-on collision with a tractor trailer on County Route 38.

Ty M. Kennedy, 42, Massena, was killed in the accident, which occurred shortly after 10 a.m., a state police investigator said. A state police accident reconstruction team was investigating the incident Thursday evening.

Mr. Kennedy was driving east in a Jeep when he passed a truck and then drifted into oncoming traffic and hit the tractor-trailer driven by Canton resident Travis M. Perkins, who was not injured, an investigator said. The tractor-trailer was registered to Trimm Trucking of Winthrop.

St. Lawrence County Coroner June Wood pronounced Mr. Kennedy dead at the scene. An autopsy was scheduled for Thursday night at Massena Memorial Hospital.

He was the owner of Via Main Restaurant on Main Street in Massena, where he often waited on customers himself.

"That place was packed every morning. He was always laughing and joking with everybody," said Una M. Hall, a baby sitter for the family. "He waited on everybody in the morning."

Mr. Kennedy and his wife, Diane, were always willing to help out in the community, Mrs. Hall said. They had donated food to an area church last weekend.

Last year, the Kennedys provided snacks to students in an after-school program at Jefferson Elementary School in Massena. They also provided sandwiches and soup to students of the former Jefferson Unit of the Akwesasne Boys and Girls Club.

"They were always giving to something," Mrs. Hall said.

County Route 38 was closed for several hours. The investigation is continuing.

Johnson Newspapers writer Bob Beckstead contributed to this report.