3-Vehicle Rollover Crash Leaves 1 Seriously Injured

CRANSTON, RI — A woman walking was hit and seriously injured during a three-vehicle crash Monday night. Excessive speed and reckless drving are to blame for the crash, police said.

The crash happened around 8:45 p.m. Tuesday at the intersection of Broad Street and Berwick Lane. According to police, two of the vehicles were heading south on Broad Street, one a Nissan Frontier truck and the other a BMW sedan.

The truck, driven by 19-year-old Jacob Gardner, of Warwick, was behind the BMW, driven by George Rodriguez, 30, of Providence. Gardner crossed the yellow line and tried to pass Rodriguez's car. Rodriguezsped up to stop Gardner from passing, leading to both vehicles speeding down the road, side by side, with Gardner heading the wrong way up the northbound lane.

Rodriguez crashed into a third vehicle that was parked and starting to turn into the road and left onto Berwick Lane, as the two vehicles reached a slight curve in the road. Gardner, meanwhile, tried to brake, causing his truck to skid sideways. He lost control and hit the curb, which rolled over the truck before it crashed into a person who was walking, believed to be crossing Berwick Lane at the time.

After crashing into the person, the truck landed in a yard on Sefton Drive, after hitting a parked truck in the driveway. Tools and other landscaping equipment were in the bed of the truck, and were thrown by the force of impact, landing on the hood and roof of the third vehicle.

Excessive speed and reckless driving on the part of both drivers caused the crash, police said. Gardner was taken to the hospital with minor injuries and later released to Cranston police. The third driver, who was not identified, was also hospitalized with minor injuries. The pedestrian, a 37-year-old Smithfield woman, was seriously injured and taken to the hospital. As of Tuesday morning, she was in serious, but stable condition, according to police.

Both Gardner and Rodrigues were held overnight at Cranston police headquarters, and were arraigned Tuesday monring in Third Division District Court on charges of driving to endanger, injury resulting and reckless driving: drag racing. Bail was set at $5,000 with surety for each, with a pre-arraignment conference set for Dec. 14. Rodriguez was held as a superior court violator for a separate issue. Each will also be issued several traffic tickets, police said.