Mystic — The fiery crash that left two people dead Thursday evening in the northbound lanes of Interstate 95 has also left a lot of questions.

Why was Lance Lewis, 36, of Batavia, N.Y., driving the wrong way on the highway?

What exit did he get on? And where was he coming from?

Police are trying to retrace Lewis' steps to answer these questions and others.

State police spokeswoman Kelly Grant said police will contact his family to determine what he was doing in Connecticut and where he was before getting into his car and driving the wrong way on the highway.

Attempts to reach someone at Lewis' last-known address were unsuccessful.

Rebecca Kingsley, who works in Westerly, said she was driving in the left travel lane of I-95 north when she noticed that vehicles ahead of her were moving over to the right lane.

She said she saw lights coming towards her as she crested an incline. The car was moving fast, going "perfectly straight, staying in the same lane. It wasn't swerving or anything."

Kingsley said she quickly moved over. The car sped past her.

"It seemed like the driver knew what he was doing," Kingsley said. "He was going highway speed like he was intent on being in the fast lane."

State police said emergency dispatchers at Troop E in Montville took several calls about a driver headed the wrong way on I-95 north between exits 90 and 91. The accident happened around 7 p.m.

Lewis' Honda CRV collided with a Lexus driven by Terrence Garbuzinski, 46, of No. Attleboro, Mass., who was driving northbound. Both men were declared dead at the scene.

Garbuzinski was a vice president at Sonalysts in Waterford. It is not known if he was heading home from work when the accident occurred. No one at Sonalysts returned a call seeking comment.

Police said Veronica Crowley, 55, of 29 Palmer St., Stonington, was driving her Nissan Sentra behind Garbuzinski. Lewis' collision with Garbuzinski's car caused Crowley also to strike Garbuzinski's car.

Lewis' car briefly caught on fire.

Police said Crowley was unable to offer an account of the incident except to say that she saw the two cars collide and "go up in the air."

Grant said there was no indication that people were calling 911 from exits north of exit 91. That could mean Lewis' car did not enter the highway until that point.

On either side of the northbound off-ramp of exit 91, a driver would have to pass "Do not enter" signs if traveling the wrong way on the off-ramp.

The stretch of highway between exits 90 and 91 is 2.9 miles. Initially, the highway at that point has three lanes — a slow lane, a travel lane and a passing lane. After about 1,000 feet it becomes two lanes.

The north- and southbound lanes are divided by metal and wire rails and, in some areas, by trees and rock formations.

The highway was closed for about five hours as the state police Collision Accident Reconstruction Squad was on the scene trying to determine the events that led to the crash.