5 Dead, Dozens Injured In Multi-Vehicle Crash On Pennsylvania Turnpike

Five people are dead and roughly 60 others hospitalized following a multi-vehicle crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike early Sunday morning, authorities said.

An 86-mile stretch of the highway was shut down following the massive collision involving two tractor-trailers, a tour bus and passenger vehicles in Westmoreland County, a spokesperson for the turnpike said.

The shutdown, from the New Stanton to Breezewood exits, involves both eastbound and westbound lanes.

Those injured have been transported to three hospitals in Westmoreland County, said Pennsylvania Turnpike spokesperson Carl DeFebo in a tweet.

Pennsylvania State Police told WTAE that the tour bus involved in the crash was traveling on a downhill curve when it struck an embankment. Commercial vehicles traveling behind the bus then crashed into it from behind.

The tour bus was owned by Z&D Tours of New Jersey and was bound for Cincinnati from New Jersey, a state police spokesperson told the Tribune-Review.

HuffPost has attempted to reach Z&D Tours.

Aerial footage taken at the scene showed several of the tractor-trailers, one identified as belonging to shipping company FedEx, partially crushed and wedged together. The tour bus was seen lying on its side.

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board said they have dispatched a team of 13 people to the collision site.

Angela Maynard, a tractor-trailer driver from Kentucky, told the Tribune-Review that she was traveling eastbound on the turnpike around 3:30 a.m. when she came upon the nightmarish scene.

“It was horrible,” she said of the wreckage that prompted her to get out of her truck to help. “I walked toward the scene and saw one of the truck drivers laying near the barrier. I tried to keep him occupied, keep talking, until medical help arrived. He was in bad shape. He was floating in and out of consciousness.”