NORTH ATTLEBORO -- A Rhode Island man died following a crash on Interstate 95 near Route 152 Saturday morning.

Carl L. Crowe, 59, of Johnston, R.I. was driving a 1987 Jeep Utility in the right travel lane on I-95, heading north, when a Chevrolet van struck the rear of the Jeep north of the Route 152 exit about 6:45 a.m., state police said.

Crowe was taken to Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro, where he was later pronounced dead, state police said.

Crowe was talking when state police reached the scene. However, his condition deteriorated rapidly within three minutes of North Attleboro firefighters reaching him.

The driver of the van, Christopher R. Cartier, 22, of Cumberland, R.I., was not believed to have been injured. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

The right travel lane of I-95 north near the crash scene was closed for about four hours during the investigation.

Responding to the crash were members of the state police collision analysis and reconstruction section; the state police crime services section; the state police detective unit assigned to the Bristol County District Attorney's Office; state troopers from the Foxboro barracks; the state highway department; and the North Attleboro Fire Department.

It was the first local fatal crash on I-95 since April 15, when a North Attleboro man, Robert Strang, 64, of 21 Summer St., rear-ended another vehicle, and then crashed into concrete barriers before coming to rest on I-95 south near Lonsdale Avenue in Pawtucket.

Rhode Island state police said this spring that Strang may have been stricken by a medical problem before the crash.

Saturday's accident was the second local fatal crash this week.

On Wednesday, Foxboro resident Salvatore Siracusa, 56, was killed when his motorcycle struck a Ford Explorer on Central Street in Mansfield.