What to Know
- Two crashes during the Wednesday morning commute stopped traffic on two of Philadelphia's busiest roadways.
- A school bus and ambulance were involved in a crash on northbound Interstate 95 near milepost 6. The wreck slowed traffic for hours.
- What appeared to be a work van caught fire in the eastbound lanes of the Schuylkill Expressway (Interstate 76) in Philadelphia around the same time. That wreck slowed things down for about an hour.
Two crashes on two of Philadelphia's busiest interstates left drivers stuck in backups Wednesday morning.
A crash involving a school bus and ambulance on northbound Interstate 95 in Delaware County late in the morning commute and a vehicle fire on the eastbound Schuylkill Expressway (Interstate 76) in Philadelphia around the same time left drivers stuck in big jams.
The I-95 multi-vehicle wreck had all the northbound lanes blocked before the Blue Route around 8:45 a.m. The I-76 vehicle fire, which appeared to be a work van that caught fire, had all eastbound lanes closed between Route 1 and Montgomery Drive.
Traffic quickly backed up with nearly an hour added to the commute on both major highways, according to Waze. By 9:15 the backup on I-95 exceeded 2 hours while drivers were stuck in nearly 2 hours of traffic on I-76 as the backup stretched to Gladwyne.
By 9:35 a.m., traffic appeared to be moving again on I-76 as a couple of lanes reopened, but some residual slowdowns remained.
By 10 a.m., one lane slowly got by the I-95 crash. Long delays remained back to Route 452 as of 11 a.m., however. Route 291 could be used to get around the I-95 slowdown.
Transportation and Transit
Pennsylvania State Police said that the ambulance crashed into the charter school bus after the bus stopped on the on-ramp from Chestnut Street to yield for traffic. The front passenger in the ambulance was trapped in the wreckage.
Police said that no children were on the school bus at the time. The school bus driver and three people in the ambulance were given medical treatment, police said.
The ambulance passenger suffered a broken femur and was upgraded from serious to stable condition at the hospital, police said.
Police didn't announce any charges in the crash.
