At around 4:20pm on Route 3 North, dashcam footage captured a black BMW, believed to be a 4 Series Gran Coupe or possibly an i4, drifting off the road and then accelerating across the wide median separating the two directions of traffic. It crossed onto the northbound carriageway heading directly into oncoming traffic. The car it hit first was an Acura Integra. An orange Honda Fit and a black sedan were also caught in the impact. One person was taken to hospital with injuries described by Massachusetts State Police as not life threatening.
The dashcam footage belongs to the driver of the Acura Integra. According to his father, he had bought the car only in October. He was coming home from work.
Massachusetts State Police have not identified the BMW driver or disclosed a cause for the manoeuvre. No explanation has been given for why the vehicle left the road.
The crash lands in an already raw moment for the state. Two weeks earlier, Massachusetts State Police Trooper Kevin Trainor was killed in Lynnfield while responding to reports of a driver travelling against traffic on Route 1. That death prompted State Senator Bruce Tarr to sponsor an amendment expanding the state's driver alert programme. Just days before the Chelmsford incident, a New Hampshire State Police trooper put his cruiser in the path of a driver heading the wrong way on Route 101 in Exeter to stop it. That trooper survived.
Like this? Get the app: iOS | Android
Massachusetts has been running a driver detection system since 2022. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation operates flashing lights powered by solar panels and cameras at exit ramps, designed to alert drivers who enter heading against traffic. The system targets the most common point of entry: the exit ramp. What it cannot do is detect a vehicle that has left the road entirely, crossed a median at speed, and entered the opposing carriageway through the grass. That is a different category of incident and one that detection systems at ramp entries cannot address.
Senator Tarr's proposed amendment, which gained momentum after Trooper Trainor's death, would expand the detection network to additional sites and increase the number of intersections where the warning lights operate. Whether the Chelmsford crash accelerates that process is now a question for the State House.
The dashcam footage has been shared widely. It is not complicated to watch. A car comes the wrong way. Other cars try to move out of the path. There is not enough time. The man coming home from work had owned his car for seven months.
Sources
- CBS Boston — Wrong-way crash on Route 3 in Massachusetts caught on dashcam video
- Carscoops — Wrong-Way BMW Driver Takes Out Multiple Cars In Mass.
- WCVB (aerial footage, cited via Carscoops) — Route 3 North crash identification
