Overview
- Multiple 911 callers reported a wrong-way vehicle on I-290 eastbound just before 9 p.m. on Wednesday, June 24, and troopers found a head-on crash near Exit 28 where both cars were on fire.
- Responders discovered a Subaru and a Jeep with severe front-end damage and both fully involved in flames; firefighters used nearly an hour of hydraulic rescue work to extricate the trapped occupant.
- The wrong-way driver, the sole occupant of one vehicle, was pronounced dead at the scene and was later taken to the Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner; the other driver escaped before crews arrived and was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
- Massachusetts State Police and the Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr.’s office have opened an investigation into the cause of the crash and the scene required eastbound traffic to be diverted at Exit 27 for several hours.
- State officials say this crash comes as Governor Maura Healey and MassDOT speed up a multi-year plan to install roughly 400-plus thermal detection systems that trigger visible WRONG WAY warnings and to add upgraded signage at high-risk ramps to prevent future wrong-way incidents.