Courier With Coronavirus Samples Crashes On I-195 In Massachusetts

As the US scrambles to ramp up both testing capacity and the speed at which results are delivered, one courier in New England was perhaps taking this directive a little too seriously when he crashed on Interstate I-195 in Seekonk, Mass, near the Rhode Island border on Tuesday morning. However, in some long overdue good news, none of the test samples inside the car were damaged, according to CBSN Boston.

Massachusetts State Police sent a hazardous materials team to examine the samples and the team determined that they “were not compromised” and the container holding them was intact.

The courier, who was driving a Honda Civic, bumped into a tractor-trailer on the westbound side of 1-95 at Exit 1 around 7:50 am. The contact caused the Honda to spin out and hit an ambulance carrying a 70-year-old patient. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

“Initial observations of a liquid spill led first responders to suspect the samples may have spilled and a state hazardous materials response team responded to the scene,” State Police spokesman Dave Procopio said in a statement.

“Further investigation by the hazmat team revealed that the spilled liquid was the Honda driver’s coffee, and that the container holding the samples was intact and undamaged, as were the samples inside.”

The driver, a 49-year-old woman from Rhode Island, was taken to the hospital as a precaution for potential exposure to the virus.

Another courier was called and ended up delivering the samples to their destination.

It wasn’t immediately clear if there is now an Uber Delivery service for coronaviruses (although we are confident a lightbulb is going off above the head of some cash strapped San Fran VC) or why couriers carrying biohazardous equipment are taking leisurely strolls in Honda Civics. Then again, imagine if the woman was driving a Tesla…