One person was critically injured in a fiery, multi-vehicle crash that shut down Interstate 95 in New Hampshire for five hours on Wednesday night.
State police said they responded to a report of a crash with multiple vehicles on I-95 in Greenland shortly after 9 p.m. Wednesday. Two troopers who were in the area at the time arrived at the scene around the same time the first emergency call was received and determined that the crash involved multiple cars and affected both sides of the busy highway. They called for emergency medical services and began providing aid to those injured in the crash.
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Additional troopers arrived soon after, and with the help of local police, closed both sides of the interstate, according to state police.
State police said their preliminary investigation determined that a Volkswagen Golf driven by 26-year-old Thomas J. Daneault, of Merrimack, and a Toyota 4Runner, driven by 29-year-old Adam A. Woods, of Ipswich, Massachusetts, were driving southbound on I-95 when the Volkswagen, for reasons that remain under investigation, rear-ended the Toyota, causing the Toyota to veer off the right side of the road, where it came to rest on an embankment near woods along the highway.
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After striking the Toyota, the Volkswagen traveled across the center median, entering the northbound travel lanes on I-95, state police said. The driver, Daneault, then reversed direction and started driving northbound when his Volkswagen got rear-ended by a Volkswagen Golf GTI, driven by 49-year-old Christopher J. Dimare, of Portsmouth.
As a result of the second crash, Daneault's car spun into the center of the road. Daneault was thrown from his vehicle, which caught fire and quickly became fully engulfed in flames. The Volkswagen driven by Dimare then veered off the right side of the road and struck several trees in the woods along the highway.
Daneault was taken by ambulance to an area hospital with potentially life-threatening injuries. Dimare was also hospitalized with serious injuries but is expected to survive.
Woods, the driver of the Toyota, was evaluated at the scene for minor injuries but did not require hospitalization. An additional passenger in the Toyota was not injured.
Due to the seriousness of the crash, members of the state police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Unit responded to the scene to assist with the investigation. Four local police departments, five fire departments and the New Hampshire Department of Transportation also assisted state police at the scene.
While troopers investigated and emergency personnel worked to remove the involved cars and clean up the large debris field, I-95 was closed to traffic in both directions for about five hours. During the closure, northbound traffic was diverted off Exit 2 in Hampton and southbound traffic off Exit 3 in Portsmouth.
The scene was ultimately cleared and all travel lanes reopened shortly after 2 a.m.
All aspects of the crash remain under further investigation. Anyone with information that could assist in the investigation is asked to contact Trooper Shane McClure at Shane.M.McClure@DOS.NH.GOV.
