4 injured in Swampscott accident

SWAMPSCOTT – Police said four local young men were injured, two suffering critical injuries, in a motor-vehicle accident on Stetson Avenue early Saturday morning.”There were four injured; two of them were sent to Salem and treated and released, and two were at Brigham and Women’s [Hospital] in Boston and in critical condition as of Saturday,” Swampscott Police Sgt. Tim Cassidy said on Sunday evening.He said the incident was under investigation by the Massachusetts State Police out of Danvers and the Swampscott Police Accident Reconstruction Team, and police had not identified any factors that may have caused or influenced the accident.The accident occurred at 12:53 a.m. Saturday around 26 Stetson Road, near the intersection of Stetson and Norfolk roads, according to police.Norfolk Road resident Alan Webster said he was sitting on his couch when he heard a car in a long skid followed by an explosion. He said he looked outside and saw a vehicle on fire that appeared to have crashed into a big stone wall that used to be an abutment of a railroad bridge.Webster said several neighbors came outside and a man was standing in the street yelling for somebody to get out of the car.Webster said Sunday that it was difficult to see with the smoke coming from the vehicle and the flames starting to move up the vehicle’s hood. But he said “it looked like somebody was inside the car while it was on fire.” Webster reported that he moved closer as the police and fire arrived and he heard somebody moaning and laying on the sidewalk.Firefighters took one occupant of the vehicle to the field at Clarke School to be flown by helicopter to Boston, Cassidy said. A second victim was taken by ambulance to Boston, while the other two victims were transported to Salem Hospital, Cassidy reported. Webster said another victim appeared dazed and had blood on his face.Webster said the accident left a huge burn mark on the pavement, scorched bushes and an uprooted tree.Cassidy said the victims were all young local men in their 20s.