81 has never been known as the friendly neighborhood highway..

Tremendous accidents have taken place.. potholes.. a history of deaths and tragedy.. Don’t even start talking about the giant ice storm of 2007!!

But today? It seemed … just different.

Accident after accident, fire and EMS call came in one after the other.. major Incidents were occurring every few mile markers.

Today in the life of Interstate 81:

Mile marker 82 – Six or seven tractor-trailers involved. There was a 200-meter quarantined area based on a hazmat issue.
Mile marker 87 – Four or five tractor-trailers involved.
Mile marker 88 – Five to 10 tractor-trailers involved. One truck went over an embankment.
Mile marker 88.5 – Four tractor-trailers involved.
The southbound lanes of I-81 were closed between Exit 90: PA 72 – Lebanon and Exit 80: PA 743 – Grantville/Hershey.

I-81 north was closed between exit 80 and 85 because of debris and emergency vehicles

Interstate 78
Another crash led to the closure of the westbound lanes of I-78 between Exit 8: US 22 West/to PA 343 – Lebanon/Fredericksburg and the end of the interstate..

The Lebanon County coroner was called to one scene and officials say one man was air-lifted from one of the accident sites.

Parts of the road will STILL be closed for hours, according to a report tonight on PENN LIVE:

There is no timetable for reopening the roads, Schreffler said, with sometime after midnight being the earliest possibility. Most likely, the roads won’t be fully reopened until Thursday morning.

HOW BOUT THAT WEATHER?

At the same time the accidents began to occur, it appears that harsh weather was rolling through the area ..

At the time most accidents would have been happening, flooding downpours were reported …

However it was no worse than other storms have been in the past. Perhaps it led to the ‘perfect storm’ of traffic, people forgetting how to drive to the a pandemic, and a fierce rainstorm?

DID PEOPLE FORGET HOW TO DRIVE!?

There is no intention to ‘blame the driver’ for what occurred today on I81, but there is something to be said about a “water cooler” conversation as of late.. have people become worse drivers since the pandemic shutdowns?

It seems like people are forgetting the modern decencies of driver’s ED .. freely rolling across the double yellow line.. Swerving off onto the the rumble strips repeatedly. Looking at phones, laptops.. shaving.. forgetting that YOUR life is in THEIR hands!

It seems like since the “reopening” after shutdowns, people forget their teenage lessons about red lights..stop signs.. speeding.. and yes, safety. Not just on highways, either.. but local roads. Rural roads.. parking lots!! Can people even park anymore!?

And quite frankly, perhaps people forgot how to drive in DRIVING rain storms!

Today was a perfect storm of disaster.. As this post is written parts of I81 is still shut down.

Today EMS volunteers were taken off guard.. from HAZMAT spills to motorcycle spills, there was a day of infamy in Lebanon county!