Officials blame weather for 14 crashes involving 24 semi trucks

As many as 25 tractor trailers were involved in a chain of crashes that caused massive backups in Pennsylvania on Wednesday. 

According to ABC 27, 10 miles of Interstate 81 were shut down just after 2 p.m. on Wednesday, July 9th to approximately 1 a.m. on July 10th after severe storms caused 14 crashes, including three hazmat incidents. 

State Police say that the first accident occurred around 2 p.m. on I 81 South near mile marker 87 during a heavy downpour. In that incident, one semi truck attempted to pass another but the two rigs collided. 

Less than 10 minutes later, a tractor trailer did not stop for a line of slowed vehicles, causing a collision with five other vehicles at a high speed. The truck driver was killed in the accident. 

Later in the day, three more crashes involving tractor trailers created hazmat situations, including one ground fiberglass and two fuel spills. 

During the clean-up of the multiple wrecks, semi trucks were detoured to avoid further backup, but even on the detour traffic was an issue. 

“We were delayed going through town because you had 20 or 30 tractor trailers that normally don’t be on the business street, on the business street,” said truck driver Steven Jenkins.

“33 miles took me four hours,” added truck driver Moses Mubiru.

PennDOT spokesperson Fritzi Schreffler described the series of crashes in such a short amount of time as one of the “stranger situations” she’s seen.  

The accidents are still under investigation.