- Federal officials say the driver of a tractor-trailer that overturned and sparked a blaze underneath a major Philadelphia interstate that resulted in a collapse had failed to slow down on the exit ramp.
- The National Transportation Safety Board issued its final report in the June 2023 crash at an Interstate 95 exit ramp and “found probable cause” that the driver, who was killed, exited the highway above the posted speed limit and possible fatigue played a role.
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There were no other deaths or injuries.
This was my thought as well. Like, yea, this blaze caused the collapse and the blaze was the result of a tanker truck, but it feels more like shifting blame. If a fire from one accident can cause the bridge to collapse then you need to take more precautions. Stronger bridges, ristrictions of what can go under the bridge, better response times for firefighters, maybe some type of fire suppression system (if nothing else it could help even if not eliminate a fire completely), etc.
Prevention and rapid response measures would make it prohibitively expensive to manage. In this case the only injury was the driver. There was no way to prevent that once the crash was imminent. Truckers are already regulated to manage fatigue. The collapse might have actually been beneficial as they’d still likely need to completely remove and replace that section anyways. This way the rebuilding doesn’t need to account for dismantling a damaged overpass still in the air.
That there was only 1 injury and it was the driver, is luck. It’s easy to look back and think it wasn’t that bad. You have knowledge of the outcome.