Three Delaware County men killed in crash on Route 1 in Upper Providence Township, Pennsylvania, police say

UPPER PROVIDENCE TOWNSHIP, Pa. (CBS) — Three people were killed after a small bus crashed into the back of a truck and caught fire on Route 1 Media Bypass in Delaware County Tuesday.

A paratransit bus driver rear-ended a truck carrying a dumpster just before the Route 252 exit ramp. The bus then caught fire, a spokesman for the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office said.

The three people killed were all on the bus, the spokesman added.

The bus driver, a 31-year-old man from Chester, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Motorists tried to pull two people out of the wreckage of the bus through the back door, but those victims were also pronounced dead. Police identified the two bus passengers as a 60-year-old man from Springfield and a 75-year-old man from Brookhaven.

“My thoughts are with the families and my prayers are with everyone involved,” said Theresa Fitzgerald, an Upper Providence Township resident.

The driver of the garbage truck, a 36-year-old Brookhaven man, was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

The accident was first reported shortly before 8 a.m.

Southbound traffic on the ring road was blocked all morning until noon. The lanes were reopened around 1:10 p.m.

Many drivers said they would drive more carefully after the tragic accident.

“Be careful when you turn and enter the highway and everything else, always yield to other people,” Jimmy Kelly said.

Multiple agencies, including the National Transportation Safety Board, are investigating the crash, authorities said.

A police officer was involved in an accident while responding to the scene, but everyone was fine.

“It’s brutal”

DELGO Community Transit owns the bus involved in the crash, and the company’s CEO said his organization is in shock.

“It’s brutal,” said Nick Miccarelli, CEO of DELGO Community Transit. “We pride ourselves on being able to deliver to our customers safely. That didn’t happen today.”

Miccarelli and other DELGO employees are mourning the loss of a driver and two customers. He said he learned the news this morning after receiving a message from his firefighter friend.

“We immediately sent our staff to the scene as soon as possible. And, unfortunately, they found the worst,” Miccarelli said.

Miccarelli said the route the driver took was one his drivers have taken thousands of times. While he did not reveal the name of the driver involved in Tuesday’s crash, he did share some personal information.

“He’s been here about nine months,” Miccarelli said. “No accidents, clean driving record.”

Miccarelli said he would visit the driver’s family as well as the families of the two customers killed.

On Tuesday afternoon, police arrived at the DELGO office in Eddystone.

Miccarelli said he had never had an experience like this before and was still trying to process it all.

“We’re still trying to figure out exactly what happened, and we’ve heard reports of all kinds,” Miccarelli said.

“We are taking all possible measures to prevent such a situation from happening again,” he added. “But everyone understands that the roads are dangerous. So we are taking all possible precautions.”

This article has been updated to reflect which vehicle police say hit the other.