Authorities responding to the scene of a head-on collision on the Pennsylvania Turnpike Saturday night said that the force of impact was similar to one car hitting a concrete wall at 140 miles per hour. Several vehicle occupants sustained injuries of varying severity, and both drivers are dead as a result of the accident.
A 76-year-old male driver allegedly drove eight miles on the wrong side of the turnpike, traveling eastbound in the westbound lanes, before crashing into another vehicle going the other direction. Authorities speculate that he may not have realized that he was traveling in the wrong direction due to the late hour and the low levels of traffic. The driver’s wife was also inside the vehicle and sustained possible serious injuries requiring hospitalization. It is unknown why she did not alert him to the fact that he was driving on the wrong side of the road.
The other vehicle contained four known occupants. The driver, a 36-year-old male, died as a result of the crash. The vehicle also contained two children, a 5-year-old girl who sustained no injury and a 4-year-old boy who went to the hospital for a possible injury, along with a 40-year-old female. The relationship among the second vehicle’s occupants is not specified.
There is no data available as to the current conditions of those injured in the crash. The westbound lanes of the highway reopened on Sunday morning after shutting down for approximately four hours. Those injured in car accidents in which someone else broke the rules may find it helpful to consult an attorney.
