Virus test sample courier collides with semi
A courier carrying samples to a lab for coronavirus testing was involved in a crash with a tractor-trailer and an ambulance transporting a patient in Seekonk, resulting in a liquid spill that raised fears the potentially dangerous samples had leaked — until a hazmat team determined it was just the driver’s coffee.
State Police said a 2000 Honda Civic and a 2015 tractor-trailer collided while traveling westbound on Interstate 195 in Seekonk at about 7:50 a.m., causing the Honda to spin out and strike a Warren, R.I., ambulance transporting a 70-year-old woman to Rhode Island Hospital.
The driver of the Honda, a 49year-old Coventry, R.I., woman, was working as a courier delivering a small number of samples to a laboratory for COVID-19 testing, State Police said.
A liquid spill from the heavily damaged Honda prompted first responders to call in a hazardous materials response team and send the driver to the hospital as a precaution, fearing exposure to the possible COVID-19 samples. But the hazmat team determined it was just the driver’s coffee that had spilled, and that the samples, which were inside an undamaged plastic container, had not leaked out, State Police said.
Another courier arrived to finish taking the samples to the lab.
The Warren ambulance sustained moderate damage. A Seekonk EMS ambulance arrived to transport the patient the rest of the way to the hospital, police said.
The tractor trailer, owned by J T & S Truck Rental of Hartford, was being operated by a 51-yearold Uncasville, Conn., man and was hauling a trailer owned by Mid City Scrap Iron and Salvage of Westport, Mass. The driver was not injured and the truck showed no visible damage, police said.
The scene was cleared by 9:45 a.m. and the crash remains under investigation.