Four dead in Pennsylvania pileups

PHILADELPHIA – Several multicar pileups – including one involving dozens of vehicles – in icy conditions on interstates in the Philadelphia area claimed at least four lives and injured dozens on Sunday as hundreds of crashes were reported across eastern Pennsylvania, authorities said.

The National Weather Service warned Sunday night that temperatures were expected to drop below freezing in and around Philadelphia overnight, and any remaining moisture on roadways and sidewalks could refreeze.

State police in Philadelphia said 31-year-old Eric Blau, of Philadelphia, was killed when he got out of his disabled vehicle on Interstate 76 at about 6:40 a.m. Sunday and was hit by another vehicle. Officials said his vehicle was one of the first struck in a series of crashes that involved about 60 vehicles on the icy roadway, injuring about 30 people, and closed the highway for much of the day.

Police in neighboring Delaware County said Thomas Brennan, of Lansdale, and Jason Anderson, of Dover, Delaware, were killed when their vehicles hit a tractor-trailer that that lost control due to ice in the southbound lanes of Interstate 476. Police said 15 vehicles were involved in that crash and an ensuing accident, which injured five more people, one seriously.

Both interstates are busy arteries serving communities west of the city. Officials said Interstate 95, a north-south highway through the area, was also closed early Sunday but had since reopened.

Police in Pike County in northeastern Pennsylvania said 34-year-old Pablo Pons, of Honesdale, was killed after his vehicle overturned on an icy road and he was thrown from it and hit by a commercial vehicle. A 12-year-old boy also thrown from the vehicle was critically injured.

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation spokesman Eugene Blaum called travel conditions “very hazardous” due to light rain falling onto cold surfaces, creating a sheet of ice.

PennDOT had nearly 150 trucks out treating roadways before daybreak, when it became clear that conditions would be slippery, Blaum said.