One killed in fiery seven-vehicle I-81 chain-reaction crash near Carlisle; Texas man charged

One person was killed and a Texas man has been charged with homicide by vehicle after a fiery seven-vehicle chain-reaction crash shut down Interstate 81 northbound near Carlisle, Pennsylvania, for nearly nine hours on Friday, according to WGAL 8 on Oct. 23, reporting Pennsylvania State Police information.

The crash happened around 7:20 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 23, on I-81 northbound in South Middleton Township, near mile marker 47.1 and Exit 47, the Hanover Street/Route 34 exit. Seven vehicles were involved in total. Two vehicles caught fire, and photos and video from the scene showed extensive damage to multiple vehicles, with one vehicle engulfed in flames. Nine police and fire departments responded, along with the Cumberland County coroner's office and a towing company.

The coroner's office said one person was killed. An unknown number of other people involved in the crash were taken to a local hospital, and the severity of their injuries is unknown. The victim's identity will be released after next of kin are notified, state police said.

State police have charged David Rodis Lynn III of Round Rock, Texas, in the crash. According to state police, Lynn did not slow down when traffic slowed in front of him and struck another vehicle, causing a chain reaction, and the resulting fire caused the death of one person. The charge is an allegation based on the state police account; the investigation's full findings have not been released.

All northbound lanes were closed between Exit 47 and Exit 49, the Route 641/High Street exit, until around 4:15 p.m. — nearly nine hours. The road has since reopened, and no detour remains in effect.

Friday's deadly crash was the second time that morning that I-81 closed in Cumberland County, and the incidents were separate. At 4:51 a.m., a tractor-trailer carrying flammable hazardous material overturned on I-81 northbound in Silver Spring Township, just before Exit 57, the Mechanicsburg/Route 114 exit, the Silver Spring Community Fire Company said. The truck rolled onto its side, the driver was able to escape, and a hazmat team responded because of the load's flammability. Northbound lanes were closed between Exit 52, the Middlesex/Route 11 exit, and Exit 57 for several hours before the scene cleared and all lanes reopened. No death or injury was reported from the overturn. The same Exit 52-to-57 stretch was where a semi tore apart a coffee food truck in a construction backup on Thursday morning, in coverage published in this morning's edition.

For drivers, the two Friday closures are a pointed reminder about the exact failure state police describe in the fatal crash: traffic slowing ahead on a high-speed freight corridor. I-81 through Cumberland County carries heavy truck volume between the Harrisburg-area interchanges, and Friday showed how quickly it can close in both directions' worth of morning traffic — first for a hazmat overturn, then, about ten miles south, for a fatal chain reaction in slowing traffic. The northbound lanes are open again tonight, but expect the investigation to continue, and give slowing queues on I-81 the full stopping distance they demand.

The pattern across the two days is worth naming. Thursday's coffee-truck crash, covered in this morning's edition, happened at 9:26 a.m. in a construction backup on the same interstate in the same township as Friday's overturn — Silver Spring Township — when a semi slammed into the stopped coffee truck and rescue crews needed 20 minutes to free its driver. Friday's fatal crash, ten miles south, again began, on the state police account, with traffic slowing ahead and a driver who did not slow with it. Two mornings, three serious incidents, one roughly ten-mile stretch of I-81.