The Interstate 81 crash was recorded in videos posted on social media showing drivers and passengers lining up on the snowy road and jumping off the road as an accident waterfall unfolds. Dr David J. Moylan, Schuylkill County Medical Examiner, said three victims had been confirmed by late afternoon and that the number could rise because the fires were hampering rescuers. In one video, an uncontrollable tractor-trailer crashed into a large dump truck spinning it nearly 180 degrees, another large truck caught fire and spewed black smoke into the air, and an SUV hit a passenger car and sent it to turn next to a person. stands shoulder to shoulder in the snow and fog. The video posted on the dashboard of a vehicle showed how quickly road conditions changed. Stopped vehicles rose like a wall in front of the driver, and a man on the road spread his arms and jumped to escape the runaway vehicle. The impact sounded like thunder. The Schuylkill County Office of Emergency Management said the crash in northeastern Pennsylvania occurred around 10:30 a.m. on Monday. John Blickley, the agency’s deputy emergency management coordinator, said officials believe a blizzard blurred visibility and may have contributed to the crash. Estimates for the number of vehicles involved by the emergency management service and the state police ranged between 40 and 60, including many tractor trailers. Blickley said emergency personnel from four different counties were transporting about 20 patients to area hospitals for treatment. Three tractors carrying an unknown cargo burned when emergency personnel arrived and several smaller vehicles also caught fire, he said. Pennsylvania State Police Officer David Bohm said Monday afternoon that the fires were delaying the full investigation. Firefighters at the scene said there was a steady flow of water tankers because the crash was “in the middle of nowhere; there is no fire hydrant anywhere,” Boehm said. The highway was covered with snow when the blizzard broke out, he said. “All you need is for someone to crash into something and you have to get off the road, but when you keep driving at highway speed, it happens,” he said. People whose vehicles were in the collision and the “walking injured” were taken to Wegman Distribution Center in an industrial park near the crash site, he said, and a reunion center had been set up at Goodwill Fire Company No. 1 in Minersville for people to meet friends or relatives or book accommodation. The National Weather Service had warned of “a lot of short heavy snowfall with very poor visibility”. “Rainfall will quickly reduce visibility to less than half a mile and cover roads with snow,” meteorologists said, urging drivers to get off the road if possible or turn on the emergency lights “and gradually slow down to avoid a chain. road accident reaction “. Mike Colbert, a foreman at the National Meteorological Service office at State College, said the meteorological service began issuing blizzard warnings a few years ago and that the cumulative species reported were the reason they began to do so. “These are very heavy snow showers, where if you drive them, you can go from partly cloudy or sunny skies to a momentary blizzard in a matter of seconds. “That’s why they are so dangerous.”
