Police said 73 people were taken to 11 hospitals for treatment following Saturday morning’s crash on Interstate 78 that involved 64 vehicles, including a dozen commercial vehicles such as tractor trailers and box trucks.
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The accident happened at 9:30 a.m.at mile marker 7.5 and the interstate is shut down in both directions, state police said.
Temperatures of 15 degrees, with light snow, were reported of the area before the pileup of more than 50 cars by the National Weather Service.
The pileup left tractor-trailers, box trucks and cars tangled together across three lanes of traffic and into the snow-covered median about 120 kilometers north-west of Philadelphia. Emergency personnel work at the scene of a crash near Fredricksburg, Pa., Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016.
Many of those injured were taken to Hershey Medical Center.
Another official said “passing snow squalls” may have played a part in the crash. More than 40 people were taken to hospital while 70 others had to be accommodated in an emergency shelter built to protect them from the cold.
Penn State said a bus carrying the Lehigh Valley campus men’s basketball team was involved in the crash, WHP-TV reports. They were heading to a game in New Kensington when their chartered bus was hit by a tractor-trailer.
Police said troopers at the scene requested more ambulances for what was called “numerous injuries”.
“We’re keeping them warm, keeping them fed and hopefully going to provide them with some rental cars”, Trooper Justin Summa said.
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Multiple fatalities were reported following the crash on Interstate 78 in Fredericksburg, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency spokesman Cory Angell said. “We couldn’t see much in front of us”.
