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Black ice strikes, accidents abound

Black ice is suspected in a series of motor vehicle accidents around the region, including a predawn pileup that blocked the northbound lanes of the Blue Route in Delaware County.

Black ice is suspected in a series of motor vehicle accidents around the region, including a predawn pileup that blocked the northbound lanes of the Blue Route in Delaware County.

There are no immediate reports of fatalities, but a number of people, some of whom had to be extricated from cars, suffered injuries.

Icy surfaces developed overnight as temperatures fell below freezing while roadways were wet from melting snow.

The 5:30 a.m. Blue Route (I-476) crash involved a box truck that flipped and three cars, including a State Police cruiser. The truck crushed one of the cars and the driver had to be extricated. There is no word yet on that person's condition.

The accident closed the heavily traveled interstate between Exit 9 (Route 3) at Broomall/Upper Darby and Exit 13 (U.S. 30) St. Davids/Villanova for more that three hours. Northbound traffic was forced off at Route 1 during the closure.

In New Jersey, the State Police reported 101 crashes on the roads they patrol statewide, saying black ice was a "big factor."

The emergency room Cooper University Hospital in Camden reported an uptick in automobile accident victims as well as people injured falling on ice.

"It's very busy with weather-related injuries," said Wendy Marano, a hospital spokeswoman.

Among the accidents reported this morning were:

- A one vehicle crash on southbound I-95 at the Route 413 exit in Bristol, Bucks County.

- An overturned car on the westbound Schuylkill Expressway at the Girard Avenue exit in Philadelphia.

- A crash that closed eastbound Route 30 at the ramp to Route 202 in Chester County.

- A two-vehicle crash with at least one injury at Ronald Road and Wellington Road in Aston, Delaware County.

- An overturned car with entrapment and two injuries on Mount Misery Road in Browns Mills, Burlington County.

- A crash with entrapment on Route 73 in Berlin, Camden County.

- A car that went into the woods, injuring the drive, on Four Mile Road in Pemberton Township, Burlington County.

- An overturned vehicle with a trapped driver at Niantic and Lone Pine Roads in Douglas, Montgomery County.

- An overturned car on the eastbound lanes of the Betsy Ross Bridge.

- An overturned auto with a trapped female driver on eastbound Admiral Wilson Boulevard in Camden.