A multi-vehicle crash on the Sagamore Bridge slowed traffic on and off Cape Cod Thursday afternoon as officials raced to clear the span before the evening commute. Bourne Police said they were responding to a multi-vehicle crash on the bridge, though the number of people injured or involved was not immediately known.
According to Boston 25 News, the crash caused a heavy traffic backup in both directions, and two viewers shared photos of the jam with the station. Accounts of the crash varied in scale: capecod.com reported the crash was first called in shortly after 4 p.m. Thursday and involved two vehicles that collided and blocked several lanes. WCVB's August 18, 2023, report on a separate crash described at least two or three vehicles blocking traffic at the bridge entrance and said state police placed that crash at around 3:15 p.m. CBS News Boston, meanwhile, reported that at least five vehicles were involved.
The reports also differed on injuries. Capecod.com reported that EMTs evaluated the drivers and transported one person to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Plymouth. WCVB's report on a separate August 2023 crash said multiple victims were taken to area hospitals with what officials described as serious but non-life-threatening injuries. CBS News Boston, for its part, said injuries were reported in the October 2026 crash but that police had not specified how many people were hurt or how severe those injuries were.
Lanes Reopen After Hours of Gridlock
Lanes Reopen After the Crash CBS News Boston later reported that all lanes had reopened.
Capecod.com reported that officials worked to clear the scene as quickly as possible before the evening commute got into full gear, a race against the clock familiar to anyone who has tried to leave the Cape on a weekday afternoon. Massachusetts State Police are investigating the cause of the crash, according to capecod.com's report, though no further details on what led to the collision have been released.
A Bridge With a History of Backups
Thursday's crash is far from the first to snarl the Sagamore Bridge, a chokepoint that funnels tens of thousands of vehicles on and off the Cape each day. A 2019 federal planning document found the bridge carried an average of 62,020 vehicles daily in the fall off-season and 79,560 at the height of summer, according to a report from the Massachusetts government. The nearby Bourne Bridge saw similarly heavy fall and summer traffic of 46,370 and 57,860 vehicles per day, respectively, the same document shows.
Crashes on the span have repeatedly triggered major delays in recent years. In June 2023, a five-vehicle crash with injuries and entrapment shut the Sagamore Bridge down in both directions, according to WHDH, which reported the closure lasted about 30 minutes while crews cleared the damaged vehicles and officials urged drivers to seek alternate routes. A rollover crash on Route 6 near the bridge's off-Cape side also caused major delays one Tuesday morning, per NBC Boston, which reported that state police said two vehicles were involved, one of which rolled over, and that three adults were treated with one taken to the hospital; all lanes had reopened by 11:30 a.m. that day.
As of Thursday evening, the exact number of vehicles and injuries from the latest crash remained unclear amid the conflicting reports, and Massachusetts State Police had not released additional findings from their investigation.
