Elderly Wrong-Way Driver Caused I-195 Crash: Police

FAIRHAVEN, MA — An 87-year-old wrong-way driver wreaked havoc on Interstate 195 Monday afternoon, causing another driver to crash into a tree. The elderly driver, an unidentified man from Swansea, was charged with negligent driving and State Police said they filed an "immediate threat" alert about the man to the state Registry of Motor Vehicles. The woman who crashed suffered minor injuries, police said.

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The incident happened at about 3:30 p.m. State Police said they received reports that the man started traveling westbound on I-195 in the wrong lane in Mattapoisett. He was driving a 2011 Toyota Camry.

"When the vehicle continued into Fairhaven, a 28-year-old New Bedford woman, who was traveling eastbound in a 2005 Chrysler PT Cruiser, traveled off the left side of the roadway into the median to avoid a collision and subsequently struck a tree," State Police said in a statement.

Fairhaven police were then able to stop the man soon after he crossed into that town, police said. The woman was transported to Tobey Hospital in Wareham and released.

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