A Providence man is facing multiple felony charges following a serious car accident that occurred on the Wampanoag Trail on Tuesday morning, July 30.

Barrington Police said Christian Narvaez, 35, of Hartford Avenue, Providence, was driving south on the Trail at about 8:30 a.m. when his vehicle slammed into another car that was also traveling south and sent it careening off the road. Mr. Narvaez's vehicle then smashed through a utility pole, splitting it in half, and halting traffic on both sides of the Trail. 

The people inside the other vehicle were seriously injured, said police. Both were sent to a hospital and the driver, a 61-year-old man, was still in the intensive care unit as of Friday morning.

Police charged Mr. Narvaez with three felony offenses — driving to endanger-resulting in personal injury; driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol-bodily injury resulting-first offense; and driving so as to result in physical injury. Police also charged him with driving with a suspended license-third offense.

"We picked him up early this morning," said Barrington Police Chief Dino DeCrescenzo during an interview on Friday morning. 

The police chief said traffic was stopped temporarily in both directions on the Trail following the accident. He said Mr. Narvaez's vehicle splintered the utility pole; when it fell down, its wires pulled down another pole on the northbound side of the road. Police rerouted southbound traffic off the Trail for about an hour following the accident. Chief DeCrescenzo said traffic was confined to one lane on the north-bound side. He said National Grid crews were quick to respond to the scene and were able to replace the poles.

"We cleared the scene by about 5 or 5:30 p.m.," he added.

The chief said traffic reconstruction specialists estimate that Mr. Narvaez's vehicle was traveling at about 80 miles per hour, nearly double the posted speed limit, when it struck the other vehicle. He said the victim's vehicle sustained about "30 inches of crush."

Police tried to interview Mr. Narvaez at the scene but were unable to extract any information.

"We was disoriented," said Chief DeCrescenzo. "He was not able to communicate."

Police asked for a blood test from Mr. Narvaez once he was at the hospital. 

Police said Mr. Narvaez was arraigned in district court on Friday morning.