​Executive Summary

On Wednesday, February 21, 2018, about 6:02 p.m., a 70-year-old male was driving a 2017 International truck-tractor in combination with a 2017 Strick semitrailer, operated by Raymour & Flanigan Furniture, Inc., south on Interstate 476 (Pennsylvania Turnpike) in the right lane inside tunnel no. 2 of the Lehigh Tunnel in East Penn Township, Carbon County, Pennsylvania (figure 1). After traveling about 1,000 feet through the 4,379-foot-long tunnel, the truck-tractor struck a 10-foot-long section of electrical conduit whose support system had failed earlier and was hanging by electrical wires at a reduced height of about 8 feet 10 inches above the right lane.1 The conduit impacted the vehicle’s windshield and struck the truck driver. The combination vehicle continued through the tunnel and, after exiting, moved left and crossed onto the median, where it struck the median W-beam guardrail. The impact redirected the vehicle to the right, across the southbound lanes, and onto the right shoulder of the highway, where the truck-tractor collided with the shoulder W-beam guardrail. The combination vehicle came to rest along the right shoulder, about 5,240 feet after striking the electrical conduit. The truck driver died in the crash. No other injuries or damaged vehicles were reported.

​Probable Cause

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the East Penn Township, Pennsylvania, crash was the failure of the electrical conduit support system in Lehigh Tunnel no. 2 due to long-term corrosion, which resulted in displacement of the electrical conduit into the travel path of the truck-tractor. Contributing to the crash was the Federal Highway Administration’s insufficient guidance regarding tunnel maintenance and inspection, which did not sufficiently prioritize the repair of significant corrosion in nonstructural tunnel elements located above the roadway, and which led to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission’s delay in repairing previously documented deficiencies in the support system.

You can download and read the full report at NTSB site:

https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/accidentreports/pages/hab2004.aspx