Multiple Friday crashes snarl South Shore commute

A surprise spate of single and multiple-vehicle crashes is knotting Friday morning commuter traffic from Quincy south to Rockland.

As of 8 a.m., police and State Police were at the scene of at least eight separate accidents, including a four-vehicle crash on Main Street in Weymouth, a three-car accident on Quincy Shore Drive in Quincy, and four separate accidents in Rockland.

Police said it’s not immediately clear if the crashes were caused by lingering ice patches or other reasons. It also wasn’t immediately known if any of the accidents involved injuries.

Earlier Friday morning, State Police responded to two single-car accidents on the northbound lanes of Route 3.

The first was at 6:10 a.m. Lt. Dan Richard said a Hingham woman apparently lost control of her 2004 Toyota Prius and hit a snow bank and guard rail near exit 15 in Weymouth. She wasn’t injured, and State Police asked a state highway department crew to remove the snow bank from the breakdown lane.

Then at 6:55 a.m., Richard said a 30-year-old Dorchester man sustained minor injuries in a single-car crash in his 2005 Acura just south of exit 16 in Weymouth. The driver was taken to South Shore Hospital, and the cause of the crash is under investigation.