A driver is dead after a car traveling at high speed slammed into the rear of a commercial vehicle inside the eastbound lanes of the Fort Pitt Tunnel around midnight, shutting down the tunnel for three hours. The investigation remains ongoing, and the identity of the person killed has not yet been released.
Early findings from investigators indicate the car was traveling at a high rate of speed when it crashed into the back of the commercial vehicle, according to Pennsylvania State Police, as WTAE reports. The outlet says it is still working to learn whether anyone else was hurt in the crash, and who the person killed actually was.
The eastbound bore where the crash happened carries drivers off a steep approach. Just before reaching the tunnel portal, motorists descend Green Tree Hill, a 1.6-mile stretch with a 6% grade, heading into Downtown Pittsburgh, according to Pennsylvania Highways.
A Tunnel Built Without Room for Error
The Fort Pitt Tunnel opened on September 1, 1960, and its twin two-lane concrete bores run 3,614 feet through Mount Washington without any emergency breakdown shoulders, per Wikipedia.
The corridor carries an enormous volume of daily traffic. Nearly 107,000 vehicles pass through the tunnel each day, according to PennDOT estimates cited by Wikipedia — a sharp rise from the roughly 40,000 vehicles per day the tunnel handled when it first opened.
Not the First Fatal Crash in the Bore
A prior crash in an eastbound Pittsburgh tunnel was also referenced in the article.
The investigation remains ongoing. Rear-end collisions like this one are the most common type of multi-vehicle crash on Pennsylvania roadways, logging more than 20,000 reported incidents statewide each year, according to data cited by the SSF Law Firm.
More Planned Closures Ahead
PennDOT is also involved in the tunnel corridor beyond crash response.
Drivers should also brace for more disruptions this week. PennDOT announced that traffic stoppages are scheduled in both directions of the Fort Pitt Tunnel for survey work. It's the latest in a string of maintenance efforts inside the tunnel; Hoodline previously reported on overnight structural inspections planned for the same tunnel.
