A Long Island man was unhurt after two other drivers struck his pickup along a stretch of I-78 east in Lower Saucon Township Jan. 20, Pennsylvania State Police at Belfast said Sunday.
The Pennsylvania State Police badge.
According to news releases issued by the barrack, both crashes occurred around 10:25 p.m. in the area of mile marker 69.0 while road conditions along that stretch were “slippery.”
Police said that in one of them, 50-year-old Benjamin Rivas of Bethlehem lost control of his 2003 Chevy S10 pickup on “the slippery roadway, exited the right side of the road, hit an embankment” and struck a 2009 Ford Ranger driven by Mohammad Bilal, 34, of Deer Park, N.Y.
In the subsequent or simultaneous crash, police said 53-year-old Christopher J. Hirko of Easton was operating a 2003 Jeep Liberty when he too “lost control of his vehicle on the slippery roadway, exited the right side of the roadway” and struck the pickup being driven by Bilal.
Police said Rivas complained of numerous injuries following his accident and was transported for further medical evaluation by Bethlehem City EMS.
Hirko was also reportedly injured in his accident, and was taken to St. Luke’s Anderson Campus for treatment by Dewey EMS, police said.
Bilal, in spite of being struck by two different vehicles, was uninjured, police said.
All three vehicles were towed following the crashes.
The accident reports indicated that Rivas and Hirko are both facing vehicle code citations for Driving on Roadways Laned for Traffic.
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Police said that in addition to the EMS crews, Lower Saucon Fire Rescue, Dewey Fire Company No. 1 and PennDOT officials all assisted at the crash scenes.
In a separate accident report, state troopers at Belfast Sunday detailed another recent accident on I-78 in Lower Saucon Township that left a Vermont man seriously injured.
