Series of accidents back up traffic on Route 95
By C. Eugene Emery Jr.
Journal Staff Writer
A string of accidents on Route 95 between exits 7 and 8 in East Greenwich and West Warwick produced hours of traffic turmoil for most of yesterday morning.
In all, four passenger vehicles and a truck were damaged or destroyed in three accidents, all before sunrise. Route 95 northbound was completely blocked for hours, as was the high-speed southbound lane. However, there were no serious injuries.
“It was a mess last night,” said state police Lt. Paul Olszewski, as he sorted through all the accident reports.
The stage for the chaos was set just past 3 a.m., when Bryan Bagnell, 33, of Lakeville, Mass., suddenly swerved and his Jeep rolled onto its driver’s side. He told the police he had been trying to avoid another vehicle as he traveled north near Exit 8.
According to the police, the Jeep was then struck from behind by a Nissan Altima driven by John Sepulveda, 28, of North Providence.
Sixteen minutes later, Melissa Lotero, 25, of Wellington, Fla., came upon traffic from the first accident, tried to avoid it and ended up striking the left guardrail with her Toyota RAV4 sport-utility vehicle. She was not seriously injured