Pennsylvania Bus Crash: What We Know as Multiple People Confirmed Dead

Multiple people have been confirmed dead after a bus crash in Pennsylvania, according to Pennsylvania State Police.

The vehicle was carrying up to 50 passengers when it collided with another vehicle shortly before midnight on Interstate 81 southbound in Lower Paxton Township on Sunday. The bus flipped over, killing multiple passengers and leaving others with "varying injuries" including critical wounds, state police said, PennLive reported.

It is not yet known what caused the crash and investigators are working to determine what happened, but the collision occurred during a night of heavy rain. The Associated Press said the bus first struck an embankment, then the rear end of a car before flipping over.

"This is considered a mass casualty incident," Trooper Megan Frazer said, the AP reported. "We do have eight ambulances that assisted with us, as well as lifeline [emergency response], just because of how many people were involved and the amount of injuries."

A police report cited by AP said that three passengers "were declared deceased on scene."

Newsweek reached out to Pennsylvania State Police via email for comment.

Poor weather conditions have contributed to other road tragedies in the past, such as a bus crash that left 53 people injured during heavy snow on Christmas Eve in the Canadian town of Kelowna. Other deadly crashes have occurred as the driver tries to navigate difficult terrain, such as the packed bus that plunged into a deep gorge in the Himalayas last summer that reportedly killed more than a dozen schoolchildren.

Photos taken at the scene in the early hours of Monday show the charter bus lying on its side, having left the road and come to rest on a grassy berm. Investigators can be seen examining the wreckage in the image, which has been shared widely across social media by news outlets.

The injured passengers were transported to the Penn State Hershey Medical Center for treatment. Shortly before 5:30 a.m. on Monday, the first official confirmation of fatalities was released, with three victims confirmed dead so far. None of the deceased has been publicly identified.

Police, fire crews, and the coroner were all at the scene and worked through the early hours as all lanes were closed until just before 6:00 a.m. ET.

The American Red Cross of Greater Pennsylvania was providing food, drinks, and cots at the Chambers Hill Fire Department for passengers being discharged from the hospital. When asked how many people were being assisted, the Red Cross said that "the situation is still evolving" and they were not able to release a number, the AP reported.

The incident follows a string of road tragedies across the country this summer.

A baby was the sole survivor after her entire family was killed when their car collided with a train in Idaho, while a woman died after her SUV collided with the back of a trailer carrying logs in Florida last month.

Update 08/07/23, 8:40 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.