SEEKONK, MASS. (WHDH) - State police are investigating a multi-vehicle crash in Seekonk on Tuesday involving an ambulance with an elderly patient and a vehicle that was carrying medical samples to a laboratory for COVID-19 testing, officials said.
Troopers responding to a reported crash on Route 195 westbound about 7:50 a.m. determined that a 2000 Honda Civic and a 2015 International PRO tractor-trailer had crashed near Exit 1 and the Rhode Island border, according to state police.
The Honda was owned and operated by a 49-year-old Coventry, Rhode Island woman who was working as a courier and was transporting a small number of medical samples to a laboratory for COVID-19 testing.
The tractor-trailer, owned by J T & S Truck Rental of Hartford and being operated by a 51-year-old Uncasville, Connecticut, man, was hauling a trailer owned by Mid City Scrap Iron and Salvage of Westport, Mass.
As a result of the Honda and tractor-trailer making contact, the Honda spun out and struck an ambulance owned by the town of Warren, Rhode Island, which was taking a 70-year-old woman to Rhode Island Hospital.
The patient was taken to the hospital by another ambulance.
The medical samples being transported for testing had been secured by the courier inside a plastic container.
After a liquid spill was noticed, a state hazardous materials response team responded to the scene.
Further investigation determined the spilled liquid was the Honda driver’s coffee and that the container holding the samples was intact and undamaged, as were the samples inside.
Another courier responded to the scene and assumed custody and transport of the samples.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
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