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Harry Jackson Jr., of Brigantine, was in a Mustang 2011 Ford Mustang that struck the cab of a tractor trailer on the PA Turnpike Friday, July 29, killing him, LehighValleyLive reports.
Jackson was pronounced dead while his female passenger was hospitalized with minor injuries, the outlet reports citing police.
The rush hour crash happened when a tractor-trailer driven by a Philadelphia man went off the right side of the Northeast Extension of the highway in Carbon County, then jackknifed across the highway — breaking through the concrete barrier near milepost 79.2, police said.
The crash involved four other cars including a a 2007 Hyundai Elantra, whose passenger — a 39-year-old woman — was airlifted to the hospital after slamming into the cab of the tractor-trailer.
Motorist Chris Jones detailed the scene in a Facebook post.
"The accident involved a southbound tractor trailer that jackknifed to its left as the tractor jumped partway over the wall, badly damaging the wall itself with large holes," he writes.
"The northbound side is completely littered side to side for several hundred feet with vehicles, bits and pieces of vehicles, and all different size pieces of the wall itself."
Both sides of the highway were stopped to secure a landing zone for a medical chopper, Jones said.
At least six state troopers and three ambulances responded — "and that’s just the traffic that accessed the scene from the north end," Jones asid.
"The northbound lane was blocked from mile 88 all the way to the Lehighton Exit on 476 and whatever caused the tractor trailer to jackknife and jump the wall, it destroyed so much of the wall that chunks of all sizes up to as large as car tires were everywhere, scattered among trashed vehicles and debris, completely blocking the roadway for several hundred feet."
Jones recalled the wheels on a pickup truck nearly falling off, with at least three other cars whose airbags deployed completely destroyed.
The New Jersey driver in one of the cars involved was killed just before 6 p.m. north of the Lehigh Tunnel, WFMZ says citing the county coroner's office. His name was not immediately released.
The highway was closed for several hours.
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