Woman dies in I-95 crash in Philadelphia

A pair of crashes, one of them fatal, snarled traffic on southbound I-95 through Philadelphia for hours today.

Just as a ramp from I-95 southbound to the Vine Street Expressway (I-676) reopened from a predawn crash involving a tractor tailer loaded with trash, southbound I-95 was shut down again by a multi-vehicle pileup in the tunnel under Walnut Street.

A woman whose name has not been released yet was killed in the tunnel crash, which occurred about 9 a.m. and involved a box truck, a tractor-trailer and three passenger vehicles.

PennDot reported that the southbound lanes partially reopened at 10:30 a.m. The ramp from eastbound I-676 to southbound I-95 in the same area, however, remained closed into the afternoon hours.

Earlier, the elevated ramp from southbound I-95 to westbound I-676 was closed for 5 1/2 hours after the garbage hauler overturned.

That crash, which occurred about 3:15 a.m., also forced the closure of the Callowhill Street for a time, but it reopened as the morning rush hour got under way to relieve some of the backup on the interstate,

A crane righted the overturned garbage trailer about 7 a.m., and towed it away. The ramp reopened shortly before 8 a.m. after crews cleaned trash from the roadway and loaded it into a Dumpster trucked to the scene.