A 38-year-old Peabody man was killed Saturday night after, State Police said, they responded to reports of two cars racing in the southbound lanes of Interstate 95 in Boxford.
Michael Espinola was driving a 1997 BMW convertible just before 10 p.m., Saturday, at “a high rate of speed and crossed into oncoming traffic,” striking two other vehicles, reported Trooper Kevin O’Neill, dispatched from the Newbury barracks. Espinola was transported to Beverly Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Espinola crashed into 2012 Acura MDX, driven by a 64-year-old North Hampton, N.H., man, accompanied by a passenger, a 64-year-old North Hampton, N.H., woman, and a 2009 Honda Civic, driven by a 43-year-old Georgetown woman who was accompanied by a 12-year-old girl. The drivers and passengers were transported to Beverly Hospital with non-life threatening injuries, State Police said.
Police did not initially reveal whether they had identified any other drivers participating in a race along the highway.
Troopers from the Collisions Analysis and Reconstruction Section and the Crime Scene Services Section, Boxford Fire Department and EMS and MassDOT also assisted at the crash scene.
Three northbound lanes of I-95 at exit 53 were closed. The left lane remained open and all lanes reopened at about 1 a.m., Sunday.