GRANBY — A tractor-trailer driver was killed Monday on a central New York highway when his rig hit a stump-grinder that had come loose while being towed by another truck.

State police identified the dead trucker as James Roberts, 43, of Bridgeport.

The accident temporarily closed a section of Route 48 in Oswego County, about 30 miles north of Syracuse.

Troopers said Jesse Vasquez, 18, of Fulton, was pulling a stump-grinder with his pickup and cresting a hill southbound on Route 48 when he had to slow suddenly for an excavation truck parked on the side of the highway.

Justin Kobus, 20, of Fulton, was driving behind Vasquez in a dump truck, when he saw Vasquez brake unexpectedly.

Kobus tried to stop but slammed into the stump-shredder, knocking it loose and into the northbound lane and into the path of Roberts’ tractor-trailer.

Vasquez and a passenger in Kobus’ truck suffered non-life threatening injuries and were taken to local hospitals for treatment.