Pileups clog Interstate 70
A car is lodged under the back of a tractor-trailer after a pileup Tuesday on Interstate 70 in Fallowfield Township.
A car sits on a flatbed trailer after Tuesday’s crashes on Interstate 70 in Fallowfield Township.
A car damaged in an accident Tuesday on Interstate 70 in Fallowfield Township was one of many involved in three pileups on the highway. Fallowfield fire Chief Anthony Fleming said Wednesday 30 vehicles were involved at one crash scene.
Crews untangle a pileup Wednesday morning on Interstate 70 near Bentleyville. It was one of three multivehicle pileups on the highway Tuesday and Wednesday. Fallowfield fire Chief Anthony Fleming said 30 vehicles were involved at one crash site.
A multivehicle pileup on Interstate 70 near Bentleyville on Wednesday morning closed the highway for three hours.
Dozens of vehicles piled up along an icy Interstate 70 in three separate crash sites in the Bentleyville area over the past two days, crunching cars but resulting in only minor injuries.
The first string of crashes began about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday along I-70 east in Fallowfield Township, requiring firefighters to extricate several people from their vehicles during near-whiteout conditions.
“It was kind of crazy out there,” Fallowfield fire Chief Anthony Fleming said Wednesday.
Another chain-reaction accident occurred in the area in the westbound lanes shortly after Fallowfield Township Volunteer Fire Company arrived in the eastbound lanes, requiring them to call for assistance from fire departments in Charleroi and Bentleyville, Fleming said.
He said his fire company is routinely summoned to crashes on the interstate, but he’s never witnessed any involving 30 vehicles as was the case with Tuesday’s wrecks.
“It never stops,” he said, referring to the volume of calls Fallowfield receives involving I-70 crashes.
A third pileup occurred a short distance away about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday along I-70 east in Bentleyville, closing the highway for three hours.
State police Trooper Matthew Jardine said that crash involved three tractor-trailers, a sport utility vehicle, two pickup trucks and a car.
One of the tractor-trailers wasn’t directly involved in the crash, but it was damaged by debris that fell off the other vehicles, said Ron Sicchitano Jr., assistant Bentleyville fire chief.
He said two people involved in that crash were taken to a hospital, and they appeared to be in stable condition. Two people needed to be extricated from their vehicles, he said.
Lisa Lere, 44, of Fredericktown, was the only driver reported with sustained injuries and was taken to Washington Hospital by ambulance, state police said.
“The roads, they were icy on our approach,” Sicchitano said.
Jardine said cleanup of Tuesday’s crashes was prolonged because of a shortage of tow trucks in the region.
“It took a while to get the heavy wreckers in there,” Jardine said Wednesday.
Elsewhere, a Washington County 911 supervisor confirmed that a state salt truck overturned shortly after 8 a.m. Wednesday on Dille Run Road in Morris Township. The driver had minor injuries, PennDOT spokeswoman Valerie Petersen said.
She said PennDOT is seeing a lot of bad tires on trucks and cars involved in crashes on snow-covered roads.
“So get your cars prepared,” Petersen said.
Staff writers Kathie O. Warco and David Singer contributed to this report.