CLEVELAND (WJW) — A South Amherst man died after a violent crash on Interstate 90 overnight.

The accident, involving a Chevrolet Corvette, happened around 1:50 a.m. Tuesday in the westbound lanes near West 117th Street and left the vehicle in pieces.

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According to preliminary information from police, the Corvette was heading west when it went off the right side of the road and hit a tree and a guardrail.

“The impact caused the vehicle to separate, and a portion of it subsequently caught fire,” police told FOX 8 News.

The front end of the car landed in a grassy embankment. The back end of the car landed in the middle of a lane on I-90.

The car was on fire when the Cleveland Division of Fire arrived.

Police said the driver of the Corvette was thrown from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene.

He was identified by the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office as 43-year-old Brian Petruccelli of South Amherst.

“It’s definitely too early to determine if anything else was involved in terms of drugs or alcohol or that nature of stuff,” Cleveland Division of Police Public Information Officer Freddy Diaz said. “It’s definitely something we’ll look at. At this point, at minimum, we do suspect it was speed.”

Diaz said it is unclear if the driver was wearing a seatbelt, but that’s also being looked at by investigators.

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The stretch of I-90 where the crash occurred is an active work zone, although the work is being done on the eastbound lanes. However, ODOT is reminding drivers to reduce their speed to prevent bad accidents in these areas.

“Work zone safety is our top priority on all construction projects,” District 12 Public Information Officer Brent Kovacs said. “And we just want to remind all motorists to slow down in work zones. You often see speed limits that are posted below the normal speed limit that you’re used to driving. So, we need you to adhere to those lower speed limits.”

Diaz said speeding not only puts the driver’s life in danger, but the lives of others as well particularly in construction zones.

Additionally, while police investigated the scene, a fire truck blocking traffic was struck by another vehicle. Fire crews tell FOX 8’s Stacey Frey that the driver involved in the second crash wasn’t badly injured but they were transported to the hospital.

The highway at West 117th Street reopened just after 4:30 a.m.

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