Crime & Safety

Campers Hurt in I-78 Crash in L. Saucon: Police

Pennsylvania State Police say two children from a camp in New Jersey suffered minor injuries when their bus was rear-ended on I-78 East in Lower Saucon Township.

Pennsylvania State Police at Belfast say a chain reaction accident that occurred on I-78 East near mile marker 64.7 in Lower Saucon Township Friday evening snarled traffic for several hours.

In a news release, police said the accident occurred when Diego R. Pena-Santofimio, 53, of Linden, N.J., crested a hill and noticed that traffic in front of him was "slowing/stopping for congestion ahead."

Police said the congestion was occurring for "unknown reasons."

Pena-Santofimio, who was driving a 2001 Freightliner TK, applied his brakes but slid into the rear of a bus that was carrying children home from a day trip excursion to Dorney Park in South Whitehall Township.

Two of the children, who were returning to a camp in New Jersey, were taken to St. Luke's Hospital's Anderson Campus in Bethlehem Township for treatment of minor injuries, police said.

A 24-year-old woman was uninjured in the accident but wrecked her car when she drove into the cable guide rail in the center median of the highway, after she swerved to avoid the first accident, police said.

Members of Se-Wy-Co Fire Co., Upper Saucon Township Fire Co. and Dewey EMS responded to the scene of the accident.


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