ASHFORD, Conn. (AP) — Two tractor-trailers crashed on a Connecticut highway early Thursday, landing in a pond and killing one person, officials said.

Police said it happened around 2 a.m. on Interstate 84 near the Ashford-Union town line. Both trucks were eastbound, and ended up with their cabs in the water, one of them upside down. A state police dive team along with environmental and consumer protection officials responded.

Serious injuries were initially reported, and at least one person was transported to a hospital, police said.

The state transportation department told WVIT that one person died.

The crash, which prompted the highway to close for several hours, came hours before Gov. Ned Lamont and other state officials announced a new effort to improve traffic safety, including more state police patrols on highways where crashes and fatalities have become more common.

That includes the busy stretches of Interstate 91 running from New Haven to Hartford and Interstate 95 from Bridgeport to New Haven.

There have been roughly 50 deaths on Connecticut highways in the past two months alone, including a wrong-way driver whose crash killed four people and seriously injured two others on Interstate 95 in West Haven early Sunday morning, according to state officials.

“There is a crisis on our roadways,” state Transportation Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto said. “It’s a public health crisis.”