Pennsy Turnpike Christmas Eve

[InTheRed]

Anyone hear about this? Apparently there was a feeder driver who was involved in a fatal accident (3 out of 4 in the car wiped out). Pennsy turnpike was closed for 6-7 hours and tons of midnight to preload loads were delayed and didn't get processed until close to noon today.

Horrible to hear what happened with the feeder and the family. I looked online and saw a story about it, however no mention of the company. Did anyone else hear about this tragic event? Was anyone else here affected by it?

 

[chev]

I heard it was a Willow Grove driver. Supposedly he tried to get the occupants out but it caught fire and he couldn't do anything to save them.
Very sad.
I know the roads were treacherous. Black ice was bad.
I'm sure this will be another one with little information leaked to protect the company.

 

[InTheRed]

Yes I heard it was a Willow Grove driver as well. Details also provided were that he saw he was going to collide with a disabled vehicle and tried to roll the trailer so he would avoid slamming into the car. I don't understand the theory on that one, but instead of avoiding the car he/she rolled the trailer onto the car.

Again all second hand I haven't seen any news story to corroborate this.

What I did read was he was able to pull 1 child from the car who was airlifted to Hershey Hospital. The other 3 occupants died. Horrible.

 

[DownsizedUPS'er]

here is what i found. according to the article, it was a family of four from Georgia. All died but a 2 year old that was airlifted. The article said it was a Stirling tractor trailor involved. Not UPS. Still tragic. they were going to NY. The roads were iced over and they became disabled. here is the link.

www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2008/12/accident_closes_section_of_pen.html

 

[scratch]

UPS uses Sterling tractors. Terrible tragedy. I heard this morning that we had a driver in my Hub involved in a fatality too. Somebody ran a stop sign in front of a package car Tuesday night.

 

[chev]

UPS uses Sterling tractors. Terrible tragedy. I heard this morning that we had a driver in my Hub involved in a fatality too. Somebody ran a stop sign in front of a package car Thursday.

Yep. scratch is right. Sterling is just the make of tractor just like Mack or International.

From what the article says, it sounds like the UPS driver would have had a difficult time avoiding the accident. Very tragic. It seems like this year has been deadly one.

 

[InTheRed]

Anyone here affected operations-wise from the traffic incidents out there? Our district received numerous late trailers from central-pa and most everyone had a 5pm eta at the earliest. Drivers were finishing between 4:45-7:20.

 

[BrownPR215]

Here in Philly we were. I didn't leave the building till 10:00 AM and I had two air meets and finished about 4:30 PM but I know that some guys were out till 5:30 or so.

 

[ikoi62]

Here in Jersey we were,7 loads didn't arrive till 10-11 am
held the drivers in till 1045 it was a mad house.
customers at the front door and counter..skids of box's everywhere.i would say close to 5-6 thousand packages not sent out.what was to be a light day on Friday is now a regular day with no pickups.

 

[dragracer66]

here is what i found. according to the article, it was a family of four from Georgia. All died but a 2 year old that was airlifted. The article said it was a Stirling tractor trailor involved. Not UPS. Still tragic. they were going to NY. The roads were iced over and they became disabled. here is the link.

www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2008/12/accident_closes_section_of_pen.html

It was a driver out of the willowgrove pa building. I don't want to say his name I think he has a enough to deal with now. Just pray for the 2 year old.....

 

[DownsizedUPS'er]

It was a driver out of the willowgrove pa building. I don't want to say his name I think he has a enough to deal with now. Just pray for the 2 year old.....

indeed, i am praying for the 2 year old, as well as the driver. this is a terrible terrible tragic event.

 

[upsfeeder88]

Here's a link from a Lancaster paper if anyone is interested. What a shame. Pray for the family but also for the UPS Feeder Driver, he has to live with this for the rest of his life also.
http://www.ldnews.com:80/ci_11302799

 

[Cementups]

I'm a Harrisburg driver near where this happened. I'm not sure which way the guy was headed but I know we had a load stuck in traffic behind hte wreak. It sort of held us up. When i say sort of we culd have had drivers in around 3, but instead supervisors told drivers to sit for about 2 hours so they wouldn't come in under 8 hours. on Christmas Eve even. jerkwads.

 

[drewed]

Yes I heard it was a Willow Grove driver as well. Details also provided were that he saw he was going to collide with a disabled vehicle and tried to roll the trailer so he would avoid slamming into the car. I don't understand the theory on that one, but instead of avoiding the car he/she rolled the trailer onto the car.

Again all second hand I haven't seen any news story to corroborate this.

What I did read was he was able to pull 1 child from the car who was airlifted to Hershey Hospital. The other 3 occupants died. Horrible.

If he would have rolled it 30 ft earlier would there have been any fatalities? Yea it would have closed the turnpilke for a couple hours but ohwell, Id say the driver was courageous to attempt to do that but thats me he did what he thought was best in the situation

 

[Highwayman]

I drive from WG to HBG on east side of Penna TP. It was not so good at 1 am when I got off at 247 mm. Left HBG at 330 am 81 north bad from mm 90 north. Sorry to hear about deaths.