UPDATE: Vehicle carrying coronavirus test samples crashes on I-195, hits ambulance with patient

A vehicle carrying coronavirus test samples, was involved in a multi-vehicle crash involving an ambulance with a patient.

According to Dave Procopio of Massachusetts State Police, at approximately 7:50 a.m., a 2000 Honda Civic and a 2015 International PRO tractor trailer made contact while traveling on Route 195 westbound in Seekonk near Exit 1 and the Rhode Island border. Troopers from the State Police-Dartmouth Barracks and fire/rescue and EMS units responded.

The Honda, which was in the right lane, was owned and being operated by a 49-year-old Coventry, R.I., woman, who was working as courier and was transporting a small number of medical samples being taken to a laboratory for COVID-19 testing.

The tractor cab, owned by J T & S Truck Rental of Hartford and being operated by a 51-year-old Uncasville, Conn., 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, R.I., which was traveling in the left lane. The ambulance was carrying a patient, a 70-year-old woman, to Rhode Island Hospital at the time. The ambulance sustained moderate damage. A Seekonk EMS ambulance responded to the scene to assume transport of the patient who was in the Warren ambulance. That patient’s transport to the hospital was continued by Seekonk EMS.

The Honda sustained heavy rear-end and driver’s side damage. The medical samples being transported for testing had been secured by the courier inside a plastic container. Initial observations of a liquid spill led first responders to suspect the samples may have spilled and a state hazardous materials response team responded to the scene.

Further investigation by the hazmat team revealed that 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.

Prior to the determination that the samples were not damaged or spilled, the Honda operator was transported to Rhode Island as a precaution in case she had been exposed to the samples.

Another courier responded to the scene and assumed custody and transport of the samples.

The tractor-trailer sustained no visible damage and its driver was not injured.

The scene was cleared at 9:45 a.m. The crash remains under investigation by Troop D of the Massachusetts State Police.