PennDOT Workers Crash, Driver Killed
A vehicle filled with PennDOT workers crashed Thursday morning in Tioga County, killing one of the workers.
State police say the driver died in the crash. All five people were headed to work in Bradford County when the vehicle they were in swerved off the road and down an embankment.
PennDOT crews worked to reconstruct a crash scene that involved a PennDOT vehicle earlier in the day on Route 14 in Union Township,Tioga County.
Troopers say five PennDOT employees were in a state van when the vehicle swerved off Route 14 down an embankment before landing onto Leonards Road.
The driver, Christopher Kerns, 53, from Linden died at the scene. His four passengers were taken to the hospital for injuries.
“Traffic was backed up, the police were coming, flares along the side of the road, so I figured something bad had happened,” said Marcia Wilson.
Wilson lives near the bend in the road where the crash happened.
“There’s been, you know, incidents here and there but not like this.”
PennDOT employees have been turning people away at the driver license center in Monroeton all day. PennDOT confirms the people in the crash worked there.
In a release PennDOT said the workers were headed from a driver license center in Williamsport to the center in Bradford County when their van crashed. The statement went on to say:
“We would like to extend our heartfelt condolences to all of the families impacted by this tragic event.”
Amy Marshall drove there hoping to get her son’s driver license picture taken.
“We were just turned away and told they don’t have the examiners here today.”
Now Marshall, who lives in Sayre, says now she’ll have to drive him to Williamsport over the weekend.
“It makes it easier to understand why it’s closed because at first, Yes I was upset because of having to take the afternoon off for nothing, but knowing the reason, it does make it more understandable.”
The Tioga County coroner tells us they are looking to see if Kerns may have fallen asleep at the wheel or if he may have had a medical condition which could have caused the crash.
State police are still investigating.