Early Morning Crashes Close Section of I-95

Two related vehicle crashes forced a section of Interstate 95 in Attleboro to close for nearly five hours early Sunday morning, according to ABC 6 in Providence. Two people were sent to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, the TV station reported.

The first crash happened at about 1 a.m. when a southbound vehicle rear-ended another, sending a piece of tire and other debris into other lanes, Massachusetts state police told ABC 6, according to the TV station. Nobody was injured in that incident, but it led to the second crash. ABC 6 reported:

Four vehicles hit the shredded tire, but none of those vehicles were damaged. A fifth vehicle, a Nissan sedan driven by a 45-year-old man, hit the tire and become disabled in the center lane.

At that point, the disabled sedan was hit by an oncoming car. The driver of the oncoming car was injured and taken by ambulance to Rhode Island Hospital. The man inside the disabled Nissan sedan was also injured and airlifted to Massachusetts General Hospital.

A section of the southbound freeway was closed for debris clearance and an investigation, the TV station reported. One lane was reopened after two hours, but the remainder of the section did not open for another three hours.