Raleigh, N.C. — Raleigh police closed a portion of Interstate 440 West Friday evening after a series of small wrecks involving five vehicles.

The outer beltline was closed for three hours between Glenwood Avenue and Six Forks Road.  Police had to reroute more than 100 cars that were stuck between those two roads when the wrecks occurred.

Raleigh police said three people tried to assist people after the wrecks. Two of them jumped over a barrier, but fell off the bridge over Crabtree Creek. One of them died. Authorities did not release his name.

The third person climbed over the barrier but did not fall.

This isn't the first time a person trying to assist a fellow motorist in an accident fell to their death into Crabtree Creek.

Todd Fletcher, 26, died in October 2005 not realizing the bridges between the Outer and Inner beltlines were separated by open space. The night of his death it was dark and rainy.

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