Chase Nash, a 24-year-old man from Dryden, New York, died Thursday evening after his pickup truck struck a tree and burst into flames, leaving him trapped inside. The deadly crash happened along Hurd Road in Tompkins County, where emergency crews arrived to find the vehicle engulfed in fire.
The crash occurred shortly before 6 p.m. on November 5, 2026, near the 100 block of Hurd Road in the town of Dryden, northeast of Ithaca. Nash was driving a Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck when it left the roadway and struck a tree.
According to the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Office, the vehicle caught fire after the collision. Nash was unable to escape and remained trapped inside as the flames spread through the truck.
Emergency crews were already on their way when dispatchers reported that the vehicle had become fully engulfed in flames. Dryden firefighters and other responding departments worked to put out the fire before they could reach the driver.
Once the flames were under control, firefighters found Nash inside the wrecked pickup truck. He had suffered fatal injuries, and authorities confirmed that he died at the scene.
The preliminary investigation indicates that Nash’s truck drifted off the roadway before hitting the tree. Officials also confirmed that no other vehicles were involved, making it a single-vehicle crash.
The circumstances surrounding the crash remain under investigation. Authorities have not explained why the pickup truck left the roadway or released further details about what happened in the moments before the collision.
Nash’s death has brought a tragic end to what began as an ordinary Thursday evening in the Dryden community. The reported crash site is near the 100 block of Hurd Road, in Tompkins County’s Finger Lakes region of central New York.