CHAMBERSBURG, PA : Probe into Thanksgiving I-81 crash continues on Tuesday, December 6th, 2016

Pennsylvania State Police still are investigating the cause of a deadly Thanksgiving crash on Interstate 81 involving a tractor-trailer hauling more than 8,000 gallons of gasoline.

Police said a trailer towed by a northbound vehicle came loose and crossed over the median into the southbound lanes. Troopers said they haven't determined whether the trailer impacted the tractor-trailer.

The driver of the vehicle that was pulling the trailer is unknown, police said.

William Golladay, 48, of Mount Jackson, Va., the driver of the tractor-trailer, died after his vehicle overturned and a fire ensued.

He was heading toward Hedgesville, W.Va., at the time of the crash, said Bill Holtzman, president and owner of Holtzman Oil Corp., which employed Golladay.

Questions about whether the trailer was registered or had a vehicle-identification number couldn't be answered “due to the nature of the ongoing investigation,” a state police spokesman said in an email.

Details about the trailer aren't being released, he said.

“Our crash-reconstruction team is still reconstructing the crash, and at some point, we hope to be able to confirm or deny whether the loose trailer impacted the tractor-trailer, thus causing the crash,” the public-information officer said in the release.

Police had said they were unable to confirm the day after the crash whether there had been another vehicle involved in the incident.

The same day, Holtzman told Herald-Mail Media that police informed him that a trailer had detached from a vehicle, crossed the median and struck the drive wheels on Golladay’s tractor-trailer.

The crash shut down all lanes of I-81 in the area of the 18.5-mile marker for most of Thanksgiving night and into Friday morning.

The intensity of the blaze resulted in pavement damage on a section of the interstate.

Source :
Probe into Thanksgiving I-81 crash continues