It is no secret that Pennsylvania roads can be covered with ice and-or snow during the winter months. Yet how many Pottsville, Pennsylvania, area residents have seen a car fly by on ice covered roads as if it were a summer day with dry roads?
Driving safely in the winter may take more preparation than during the summer months. When travel is necessary during wintry weather conditions, extra time may be necessary. But, even when a car is properly maintained and extra travel time is built in to a schedule, many people may face adverse traffic conditions on Pennsylvania roads. When an accident is the result of a drivers’ (or multiple drivers’) negligence, injured victims from the accident should not have to bear the burden of the cost of medical care and other losses created by the negligence.
Just how bad can it get on icy roads?
A string of accidents in Berks County, Pennsylvania, may provide one clue in answering that question. Wintry weather and slippery roads were involved in chain-reaction crashes Thursday. Authorities say that as many as 35 vehicles were involved in multiple, but related, car accidents on the Pennsylvania Turnpike from the Morgantown area to Reading.
Although nearly three dozen vehicles were involved in the string of wrecks, authorities say that 10 people suffered injuries on the Turnpike that required transportation to area hospital. Still, 10 injured victims is a significant number.
The Turnpike was not the only major road hit by multi-vehicle pileup accidents. A roughly five mile stretch of Interstate 78 had accidents scattered along the road involving at least 25 vehicles in all. The interstate accidents may have involved more injuries-- and more serious injuries.
Early reports indicate that at least one accident victim was airlifted to a hospital. In all, authorities say 25 people from the series of I-78 accidents in Berks County required treatment at hospitals, while an additional 44 were treated along the interstate for some level of injury.