Pennsylvania turnpike pileup injures 30

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- A crash involving dozens of cars on the Pennsylvania Turnpike Friday injured at least 30 people, five seriously.

Icy conditions caused two main accidents, about two miles apart between Bensalem and Willow Grove outside Philadelphia, tangling some 50 to 100 cars between them.

Police closed the road in both directions, backing up traffic for miles and disrupting the morning rush hour.

Turnpike commission chief of communications Bill Capone said the two accidents involved at least 20 to 25 vehicles each.

"The best we know is that we had 30 people transported to local hospitals," Capone said.

Eleven patients were being treated for minor injuries at Abingdon Memorial Hospital, and another five were listed as non-life-threatening traumas, according to hospital employee Cindy Taing.

And at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorn, four people had been treated and released, while three others were still being evaluated, said spokeswoman Kathleen Smith. Ron Watson, a spokesman at Doylestown Hospital, said three patients were being treated there for minor injuries.

[Philadelphia Inquirer]