Pennsylvania Turnpike turned into parking lot after 100-car pileup

The Pennsylvania Turnpike was turned into a parking lot after as many as one hundred vehicles were involved in a chain-reaction of car crashes Friday morning.

An eight-mile spread of I-276 inbetween exits three hundred forty three and three hundred fifty three was reopened after a seven-hour shutdown as officials got a treat on the early morning wreck, according to authorities.

Very first responders transported harshly thirty people to area hopsitals, all of which were expected to get through, according to Bill Capone with the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

Vehicles are piled up in an accident Friday, Feb. 14, 2014, in Bensalem, Pa. Traffic accidents involving numerous tractor trailers and dozens of cars have entirely blocked one side of the Pennsylvania Turnpike outside Philadelphia and caused some injuries.

Abington Memorial Hospital received sixteen of the patients, five of which sustained serious, but non-life menacing injuries, spokeswoman Cindy Taing told the Daily News.

St. Mary Medical Center has received seven people, a spokeswoman said. Three more patients are either being treated or en route to Doylestown Hospital, a spokesman said. Everyone is expected to get through.

The turnpike is blocked off inbetween exists three hundred forty three and 351.

“This is the one of the largest crashes that I’ve ever heard of volume, size and scope,” Trooper Adam Reed with the Pennsylvania State Police told The News. “We’re certainly fortunate that there were no fatalities.”

Investigators are still attempting to chunk together the mega-crash. Cops at the scene believe that icy conditions and sun glare were factors in the wreck, Reed said.

Wrecked cars and trucks wait to be cleared off the eastern-bound section of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The crash could have involved as many as one hundred vehicles.

“The road conditions were deceiving,” Reed said. “It could be something a ordinary as someone slowing down and the other traffic not being able to stop in time – it could lead to something like this.”

The five miles of gridlock were caused by two separate crashes that occurred two miles apart involving as many as twenty five vehicles each, Capone said. Near exit three hundred fifty one in Bensalem, Pa. tractor trailers and vehicles collided, creating havoc for the morning rush hour. An eerily similar cluster of crashed cars cropped up near exit 348.

A man stands along side his mangled SUV that was hit from the rear. The crash was described as a “chain reaction” that continued to collect cars.

Trucks, SUVs and cars were scattered via the Turnpike as motorists swerved to avoid the oncoming wreck.

“You have vehicles turned sideways. We had some vehicles off the roadway,” Capone said. “It’s just a little bit of everything.”

Traffic was backed up for miles following the horrific early morning accident. As many as twenty two people have been reported injured. There were no reported fatalities.

Crews were hoping to have all the smashed-up vehicles liquidated by Two:30 p.m. Normal traffic is expected to resume by the afternoon rush hour.

“My heart was just like…oh my God. There’s no words to express it,” Maria Schoeler, who was stuck directly behind a multi-vehicle wreck, told NBC Philadelphia. “It’s pretty crazy.”

A petite car is crushed underneath a tractor trailor in a pile-up that involved as many as one hundred vehicles.

The total crash count is approaching one hundred vehicles, with several hundred more gridlocked as officials attempted to clear the wreckage.

Lisa Terreri slammed on her brakes as she eyed the collisions ahead of her and wound up wedged inbetween two clusters of crashed cars.

“We could see that the road had a lot of frozen ice on it,” Terreri told NBC Philadelphia.

David Hill, 27, who works for a wealth management company, said he wasn’t astonished there was an accident.

“I got on the turnpike and it was nothing but ice,” he said. “I was very astonished at the condition of it. Normally the turnpike is one of the very first roads that’s cleared, but today I was driving on solid ice.”

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