A deadly tanker truck crash on Route 28 in Boggs Township, Armstrong County, shut down the highway in both directions yesterday and turned the Kittanning commute into a traffic nightmare.
Sky 4 aerial footage showed the tanker resting partway down a hillside while fire, rescue, and police crews worked the scene for hours. PennDOT closed the stretch between State Routes 1027 and 1018, sending drivers onto detours that clogged the main routes in and out of the Kittanning area.
According to WTAE, the Armstrong County coroner confirmed that one person was killed in the crash. The station reported that the tanker appeared to have gone off the roadway, and that PennDOT’s alert closed PA-28/66 at Hoover Road while directing northbound and southbound traffic to follow posted detours.
Detours And A Recently Reworked Stretch
This section of PA-28 is already under construction as part of PennDOT’s Goheenville Safety Improvement Project, which has brought lane shifts and ongoing work between SR-1018 and SR-1027 in recent months, according to PennDOT.
It is not the first serious tanker incident along Route 28. A similar crash in February 2025 in Sharpsburg forced a lengthy shutdown and environmental cleanup, highlighting how quickly a single commercial vehicle wreck can paralyze riverfront corridors and daily commutes. That earlier incident was detailed in Hoodline’s coverage of the Route 28 tanker accident that spilled thousands of gallons of diesel.
What Officials Are Saying And What Comes Next
Pennsylvania State Police and the Armstrong County coroner’s office are investigating the crash. As of Wednesday evening, officials had not publicly released the victim’s name, WTAE reported.
Drivers are being urged to steer clear of the area and use alternate routes until the roadway fully reopens. Motorists can check 511PA or PennDOT’s traffic updates for the latest on closures and detours while investigators and cleanup crews finish their work at the scene.
