Articles Posted in Interstate Driving

In addition to the recent text-messaging ban for drivers, Massachusetts may soon institute other changes to the road. “Open-road” tolling is one of those changes, and Governor Deval Patrick says highway officials will begin testing it soon. According to Patrick, the tests will be staged in lanes at the Massachusetts Turnpike exchange at Route 128 and on the Mystic Tobin Bridge.

This new tolling system would allow drivers to pass under a scanner that would assess a toll rather than stopping or fumbling for cash. Massachusetts drivers who use FastLane transponders will still be able to pay their toll that way, but the scanners can read license plates and send a bill to the driver or debit their account.

Patrick says open-road tolling will improve customer service; however, critics worry that it could lead to adding more tolls to roads that don’t currently have them.

Source: Patrick: Mass may test new tolling within months, Boston Globe, March 3, 2010 Continue reading

On Monday afternoon, a minivan rollover sent the 27-year-old driver to Massachusetts General Hospital with head and other injuries. She was flown by medical helicopter after the motor vehicle accident occurred on Interstate 95 in Foxboro near the Sharon border.

The minivan reportedly rolled over into the median after the crash and ended up in a grouping of trees. Emergency response crews used a winch and a hydraulic power tool to rescue the victim, whose name has not been released. No other drivers or passengers were injured in the minivan accident, according to the Foxboro fire captain. Firefighters from Mansfield and Sharon assisted Foxboro firefighters with the rescue efforts.

Authorities shut down the northbound side of I-95 for roughly 20 minutes while the medical helicopter landed. Fire and police vehicles on the southbound side also slowed down traffic on the other side.

Source: One hurt in I-95 crash in Foxboro, TheSunChronicle.com, January 12, 2010 Continue reading

On Tuesday, Massachusetts drivers on I-495 in Mansfield watched as a single-engine plane made an emergency landing on the interstate. The emergency landing happened near Route 140 near the Mansfield airport.

According to a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman, the pilot called Norwood Memorial Airport and told them he would have to land on Interstate 495 due to engine problems.

The two men onboard, a 24-year-old from Stoughton and a 21-year-old from Stoneham, were not injured. However, they were evacuated by paramedics as a safety precaution. All lanes of traffic on 495 southbound reopened shortly after the emergency landing.

Since there was substantial damage to the aircraft, the incident has been ruled an accident has been turned over to the NTSB.

Close call! Plane lands on 495 in Mansfield, Massachusetts; no injuries, NECN.com, September 1, 2009 Continue reading

On Monday morning around 9:17am, a four-vehicle accident in Newburyport, Massachusetts forced the closure of Interstate 95 in both directions for several hours due to a gas spill. The https://www.altmanllp.com/lawyer-attorney-1226003.htmltraffic accident involved a Honda Odyssey, a Toyota Corolla, a Ford Expedition, and a Freightliner gasoline tanker, which was carrying over 10,000 gallons of gasoline.

The crash caused the tanker truck to spill much of that fuel along the road and splayed the tanker across three lanes of traffic. It was not immediately clear how much gas had spilled.

Two people were seriously hurt in the accident, and at least another eight people suffered more minor injuries, according to a State Police spokesperson. The auto accident victims were take to Portsmouth Hospital in New Hampshire and Anna Jacques Hospital in Newburyport.

The left two lanes of northbound traffic reopened just before 5pm, while the breakdown lane and right travel lane on the northbound side remained closed as clean-up crews worked on the area.

Epic traffic jam in Newburyport after I-95 tanker crash, Boston Globe, Juy 6, 2009 Continue reading

On Sunday morning, snow piling up on the highway forced traffic into a single lane. An estimated 59 vehicles, including 46 cars, eight lightweight trucks, three buses, and two tractor trailer trucks, collided on Interstate 93 in Derry, New Hampshire, but fortunately no one was killed.

Of the one hundred people involved in the collision, only fourteen were transported to the hospital for non-life threatening injuries. A bus carrying the University of Massachusetts at Boston women’s ice hockey team to game in Vermont was involved in the crash, but none of the players were injured. They returned to Boston on another bus.

The traffic accident occurred along an 18-mile stretch of highway that has experienced several other accident in the past. An $800 million improvement project is planned to add an additional two lane of traffic. New Hampshire state police are investigating the accident.

Only cars casualties in mammoth pileup, Boston Globe, January 12, 2009 Continue reading

The Boston Globe reports that on Christmas eve morning, weather conditions throughout Massachusetts made for a slippery commute as several drivers lost control of their vehicles. A state police spokesman said there were numerous car accidents reported between 7:30am and 9:30am.

In Shrewsbury, one driver died on Interstate 290 after he was ejected from his vehicle. The man was not wearing seatbelt when the car crash occurred, and police say they are still investigating whether road conditions were a factor in the accident. They would not disclose the man’s identity until his family was notified.

After several auto crashes along Interstate 495, state police closed Interstate 495 between Exits 2 in Wareham and 3 in Middleborough so that the vehicles involved could be removed and the road could be treated. Police said the northbound lanes reopened around 8:45am and the southbound lanes at 10:30am.

Icy roads cause crashes statewide, Boston Globe, December 24, 2008 Continue reading

According to Massachusetts state police, a man drove off Route 128 northbound and rolled over around 4pm on Tuesday afternoon. Several people called to alert state police that a 1993 Mercury Cougar had gone into the woods and rolled over. State and Manchester police responded to the car accident.

A Medflight was requested but later cancelled. Instead, Stanley Klosowski, 60, of Salem was taken by ambulance to Beverly Hospital, where he was treated for car accident injuries that are not believed to be life-threatening. Klosowski was later transferred to Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical center, where he was listed in fair condition.

The interstate accident is under investigation by state police.

Crash victim driven, not flown, to hospital, Gloucester Daily Times, November 20, 2008 Continue reading