Six Vehicles Involved in Rush Hour Collisions on I-295 in Brunswick, Maine

The setting sun was a factor in two separate crashes on I-295 in Brunswick Tuesday afternoon, that left two people seriously injured.

At around 4:10 p.m., police and paramedics responded to a report of two, three-vehicle crashes in the southbound lanes of Interstate 295 at mile marker 27, according to Shannon Moss of the Maine Department of Public Safety.

Brunswick crashes involved five delivery and transport trucks

The six vehicles involved in the pile-ups included a tractor-trailer, a large box truck, two small box trucks, a pickup truck and another vehicle. The tractor-trailer crashed into the guardrail and the large box truck went off the highway, narrowly missing a light pole.

Two people were taken by ambulance to Maine Medical Center in Portland with “non-life-threatening injuries,” Moss said.

The glare from the late-day sun blinded drivers on the highway

One of the drivers told police they slowed down due to the glare of the setting sun. That vehicle got rear-ended in the rush-hour traffic, which triggered a chain reaction.

Maine State Troopers and Brunswick Police were among the first responders at the crash site. That area of the Interstate highway in Brunswick was closed for nearly two hours Tuesday evening. Southbound traffic was rerouted to Route 1 at Exit 28.

The sun's glare and the congested highway were considered factors in the collisions, Moss said. Moving the clock back an hour to standard time last Sunday put sunset squarely during early rush-hour in southern Maine.

This article will be undated as we receive more information.