Tractor-trailers in I-81 accidents

January 20, 2005

SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. - Five tractor-trailers and at least two other vehicles were involved in three weather-related accidents that tangled traffic on Interstate 81 south of Shippensburg.

The first accident was called in at 10:22 a.m., Franklin County Communications Coordinator Bryan Stevenson said. A southbound tractor-trailer crossed the median about two miles north of Exit 24 and jackknifed in the northbound lanes, he said.

A fuel tank on the truck ruptured and one person was reported injured in the accident, Stevenson said.

Fifteen minutes later, a second accident occurred about one mile north of Exit 24 in the northbound lanes, this one involving three tractor-trailers and a van, according to Jay Hossler, a firefighter with the West End Fire Co. in Shippensburg.

Hossler said the crash involved another southbound tractor-trailer that crossed the median and struck two other tractor-trailers and a van that were stopped for the first accident.

Four people in the van and two of the truck drivers were injured, he said. Two occupants of the van had to be freed from the wreckage, he said.

Hossler said he did not know the extent of the injuries to those involved in the second accident.

A third crash occurred at 12:07 p.m. as a northbound minivan struck the rear of a tractor-trailer near the Scotland, Pa., exit, according to Franklin Fire Co. Deputy Chief Mark Trace. Three people in the minivan had minor injuries, Trace said.

"You couldn't walk on it," Trace said of the road surface.

"With the temperatures so low, it's hard to keep it from icing," said Dave Rock, the county maintenance manager for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. He said the department's 35 trucks were spreading anti-skid and salt from the time the snow started Wednesday morning.

After the first two accidents, crews spread salt in the southbound lanes in the area of the accidents and in the northbound lanes once the debris was cleared away.

Stevenson and Rock said the first two accidents caused the northbound lanes to be shut down, but they did not know when the road was reopened.

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