No coronavirus samples, just coffee, spill in traffic crash

BOSTON (AP) — A car carrying samples to be tested for the coronavirus crashed Tuesday near the Massachusetts and Rhode Island border, but liquid found at the scene turned out to be coffee, not the samples themselves, state police said.

Responders were initially concerned the samples may have spilled when liquid was found at the scene, but a state hazardous materials team determined that the spilled liquid was the driver's coffee, Massachusetts State Police Spokesman Dave Procopio said in an email.

A plastic container holding the samples was not damaged, and no samples were affected, Procopio said.

A Rhode Island woman working as a courier was taking the samples to a lab when her car and a tractor-trailer collided on Route 195 in Seekonk, police said. The car spun out and hit an ambulance, which was carrying a patient. That patient was transferred to another ambulance.

Another courier picked up the samples to take them to their destination.