Delaware: Tractor-trailer plows into police vehicle on Roth Bridge, injuring 2 officers
Marc Nybo got a warning from his boss around 6 a.m. Wednesday that he was going to be late for work because a crash on a Del. 1 bridge had hospitalized two state troopers.
State police said the troopers, who were driving separate vehicles, were stopped in the right lane of Del. 1 south at the crest of Roth Bridge around 4:15 a.m. They were helping the driver of a disabled vehicle when a tractor-trailer crashed into a trooper's vehicle.
Two hours later, Nybo saw the aftermath. Hours after that, traffic was still at a crawl.
"The two police vehicles were badly damaged. The truck was blocking two lanes of traffic, the semi. And there was another SUV kind of jammed in a V between the semi and the barrier," Nybo said. "It took me about a half hour to clear the traffic."
At the time of the crash, one trooper was in his vehicle and the other was outside with the driver of the disabled SUV who still was in his vehicle, state police said. A tractor-trailer hit the unoccupied state police SUV, which caused a chain reaction crash with all four vehicles, police said.
The troopers were taken to Christiana Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Neither the tractor-trailer driver nor the driver in the disabled car were injured, state police said.
“I said a prayer,” said Timothy Simmons, who crossed the bridge around 6:30 a.m. “I just prayed that they were OK, because I’ve got a lot of friends in law enforcement.”
Simmons, 52, had noticed something going on at the bridge’s south span earlier in the morning as he was heading north to work. It wasn’t until he was heading south on his delivery that he noticed how bad the crash was.
“I just don’t understand, as a truck driver, how this happened,” he said. “I just thank God nobody got killed.”
The Roth Bridge crash kept southbound traffic at a snail's crawl for hours during the morning commute, finally clearing around 9 a.m. with all lanes opening near the crest.
State police said the investigation is in its early stages.
Related Links
Links provided with these articles were active and accurate as of the posting of the article to ResponderSafety.com. However, web sites change and the organization hosting the page at the link may have moved or removed it since this article was posted. Therefore, some links may no longer be active.