Deputies identify truck driver killed in Cayuga County crash

A tractor-trailer rollover on State Route 34B in Scipio killed Dewite J. Curtis, 46, of Lisle, after the southbound rig left the shoulder and overturned as it tried to get back onto the road near Fleming-Scipio Town Line Road. Deputies said Curtis was the only person in the 1996 Freightliner hauling liquid manure and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The crash happened shortly after 8:30 a.m. Thursday, July 2, 2026, in a rural stretch of road in Cayuga County that stays in regular use by local traffic and heavy trucks moving through Central New York. Deputies said the vehicle went off the shoulder and flipped over as it re-entered the roadway, leaving investigators to sort out exactly what caused the truck to leave the pavement in the first place.

The Cayuga County Sheriff’s Office identified Curtis after the fatal crash and said the investigation remains active and ongoing. Investigators have asked anyone with information about the wreck to call the sheriff’s office at (315) 253-1222.

The details available so far point to a single-vehicle crash with no other motorists reported injured, but the scene still raises the same questions that follow any fatal commercial-truck rollover on a state route: what led the driver off the shoulder, whether road conditions played any role, and how quickly a loaded tanker can become uncontrollable once it starts to tip back toward the travel lane. Curtis’ death leaves those answers unsettled while deputies continue to examine the circumstances on Route 34B.