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This story was last updated at 10:45 p.m. Sunday
Five people were killed and dozens more injured after a bus lost control and caused a chain-reaction crash Sunday morning on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland County.
The crash, which occurred at 3:34 a.m. in the westbound lanes around mile marker 86, closed the turnpike between the Donegal and New Stanton exits until Sunday evening.
Officials said five were killed and around 60 more were injured in the crash, which also involved three tractor-trailers and a passenger vehicle. At least one FedEx truck and one UPS truck were involved in the crash, officials at both companies confirmed on Sunday afternoon.
Late Sunday evening, the Westmoreland County Coroner's Office identified the victims as bus driver Shuang Qing Feng, 58, of Flushing, N.Y.; bus passenger Eileen Zelis Aria, 35, of Bronx, N.Y.; bus passenger Jaremy Vazquez, 9, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; UPS employees Dennis Kehler, 48, of Lebanon, Pa.; and UPS employee Daniel Kepner, 53, of Lewistown, Pa.
A spokeswoman for UPS said the two men had 28 years of service at the company.
"Both were driving together in a tractor trailer vehicle out of our Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, operating center," spokeswoman Kristen Petrella said in an emailed statement. "Our drivers will be missed and our thoughts and prayers go out to their families."
Law enforcement officials said the incident began with the passenger bus.
“... It was headed on a downhill grade, and the bus was unable to negotiate a corner,” said Trooper Stephen Limani, a state police spokesman. “That bus went up an embankment, rolled over and then was subsequently struck by two tractor-trailers. Another tractor-trailer came and collided with those two tractor-trailers, and there was also another passenger car that was involved in this crash."
Trooper Limani said the bus was bound for Cincinnati. The New York Times reported that the bus departed from the Chinatown section in the New York City borough of Manhattan.
A majority of the passengers, Trooper Limani said, are from different countries and do not speak English, which hampered investigators’ ability to get precise information and identify the passengers. “I don't want to be ignorant or try to pinpoint a specific country and be incorrect," he said.
Authorities were looking for a data recorder on the bus that he said is comparable to the black box on an airplane. The data could provide clues as to why the bus, which he said was owned by Z&D Tour, lost control.
Federal records showed Z&D Tour, which operates 8 vehicles and employs 15 drivers, received a "satisfactory" rating from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in late 2018 and reported no crashes to the federal regulating agency in the 24 months prior to Sunday.
Reached by phone, Chen Dan Yu, who said he was the owner of Z&D, said the bus had been carrying 56 passengers — one passenger short of a full load — and was headed from New York City to multiple destinations in Ohio, according to The New York Times.
Ohio Coach, a company based in the Chinatown section of the borough of Manhattan, sold tickets for the trip. Mr. Chen said Z&D had contracted with Ohio Coach for over three years. Ohio Coach did not immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday.
Mr. Chen said his bus company, based in Rockaway, N.J., drives that route every day.
The unpredictability of weather in the region this time of year can make traveling treacherous, and Trooper Limani said that may have have played a part in Sunday’s tragedy.
“The one thing about traveling through Pennsylvania is that we have changes in weather. It can be just because of our mountains, our hills, just the way that our elevation changes,” he said. “... We were told by some of the people who were driving that the weather did start to change — there was some precipitation that was coming down. I’m sure that could have played a factor, but we’re still early in our investigation right now.”
Craig Shuey, the turnpike commission’s chief operating officer, said that section of the turnpike was treated approximately every hour or so beginning at 9 p.m. Saturday.
“This whole area, because of the type of snow that it gets — it’s one of our heaviest parts of the snow belt — so the entire area is treated heavier than normal because of the amount of snow,” Mr. Shuey said.
“UPS is cooperating with authorities in the investigation and we express our deepest sympathies to the victims and their families and friends,” UPS spokeswoman Kristen Petrella said in an emailed statement.
FedEx spokeswoman Allie Addoms said it offers its “deepest condolences to the families of the individuals involved in this accident.”
“There is no higher priority for FedEx Ground than safety, and we are cooperating fully with investigating authorities at this time,” she said in an emailed statement.
A spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates major transportation accidents, said the federal agency will do its own independent investigation at the scene.
"We're looking not only at what happened in this particular case, but why it happened and how we can prevent these sorts of things from happening in the future," NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss said Sunday evening.
The agency had 20 of its investigators on site to collect evidence, Mr. Weiss said, and will work to pinpoint "any safety improvements that could be implemented nationwide."
The injured were transported to several hospitals, including UPMC Somerset, Forbes Hospital in Monroeville, and Excela Health Frick Hospital in Mount Pleasant.
A total of 31 patients, ranging from ages 7 to 52, were treated at Excela, according to the hospital’s spokeswoman, Robin Jennings. Twenty-seven have been treated and released in stable condition, she said. One child was transferred to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in Lawrenceville and three adults were taken to UPMC Presbyterian in Oakland.
Nine of the hospitalized patients are under the age of 18, she said.
An Allegheny Health Network spokeswoman, Stephanie Waite, said 11 patients were taken to Forbes Hospital in Monroeville.
Dr. Mark Rubino, president of Forbes Hospital, said the patients arrived at the hospital “scared and cold.”
Five patients were treated and released. Two people were in surgery Sunday afternoon.
The victims — all taken from the bus — range in age from 15 to 67 and their injuries included spinal injuries, a brain bleed and rib fractures.
Dr. Rubino said the incident happened so quickly that the victims were unable to contact loved ones.
“What happened was the bus turned over and the way they were extracted, they didn’t have their cell phones, they didn’t have their purses and they really didn’t have that means of communication,” he said. “Really, some of them were injured to the point that they couldn’t communicate with their families.”
Dr. Rubino said Forbes Hospital was notified Sunday around 4 a.m. about the incident. Helicopters were out of question due to falling snow, so all were transported by ambulance.
“At that point, [Forbes] mobilized surgical teams, emergency personnel and trauma surgeons,” he said.
General hospital staff and other surgeons were put on alert as well.
“By the time anybody arrived here, the [emergency department] was completely full and ready to handle as many patients that came in,” Dr. Rubino said.
This was in addition to the number of patients already in the emergency department for unrelated reasons, he said.
A number of people had boarded the bus in New York City’s Chinatown neighborhood and many others spoke only Spanish, Dr. Rubino said.
The bus was headed to Ohio, and included a “mixture” of various families, he said. They were all “very interested in supporting each other” in the tragic event, he said.
“Some were students, some were visiting family and friends in New Jersey and New York, and live in Columbus [Ohio],” he said. “No one is from here. Everyone is from another city.”
The doctor said most passengers lost their personal belongings, which were soiled by diesel fuel in the crash.
About a month ago, the hospital received financial donations from the Monroeville Foundation, which allowed them to stock up on clean clothing for incidents like this, Dr. Rubino said.
Some families will be staying at nearby hotels as their loved ones continue to receive care, he said.
UPMC said via Twitter it has received 22 patients. It said 18 patients were taken to UPMC Somerset, where they were treated and released. Three patients were in treatment at Presbyterian and one child is being cared for at Children’s.
The Red Cross said it is “working in close collaboration with the [National Transportation Safety Board], multiple state, county and local authorities, including Westmoreland Emergency Management,” to assist the survivors of the crash and those working at the scene.
The turnpike was closed in both directions between New Stanton and Breezewood for most of the day Sunday, but all lanes were reopened by around 6:30 p.m., according to tweets from the turnpike’s official travel alerts page.
“There are no longer any detours,” the turnpike’s account tweeted.
Westmoreland County emergency responders also were investigating a separate fatal crash on Interstate 70 in Rostraver. One person, an emergency responder, was killed.
Multi-vehicle accident on turnpike
First Published: January 5, 2020, 11:30 a.m.
Updated: January 6, 2020, 3:54 a.m.