Icy roads lead to crashes, five deaths in U.S. Northeast

[January 19, 2015]  (Reuters) - Five people were killed and others injured in crashes on icy roads in Pennsylvania and Connecticut on Sunday, authorities said.

The icy conditions also led to numerous accidents and road closures in Maryland. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority temporarily suspended bus services in New York's Bronx borough.

Light rain in the Philadelphia area caused flash-freezing on the roads and numerous crashes shut parts of Interstate 76 and other highways, said Eugene Blaum, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

Up to 60 vehicles were involved in a crash in the westbound lanes of Interstate 76, resulting in at least one death, a state patrol lieutenant said.

Two people died in crash on a frozen highway just west of Philadelphia in Delaware County, according the Pennsylvania State police. No other details were available.

In northeastern Pennsylvania, a 34-year-old man died on Interstate 84 when his car overturned and he and his 12-year-old son were thrown from it. His son was in critical condition in a hospital, the Pennsylvania State Police said in a statement.

In Connecticut, an 88-year-old woman died after losing control of her car in New Haven, the city's police department said in statement. There were about 40 accidents in the city blamed in slippery roads, police said.

Blaum said that icing forced the closure of parts of Interstate 95 and other roads in Philadelphia and that the transportation department had dispatched nearly 150 salt trucks. Conditions improved later in the morning and all routes were reopened, he said.

Black ice on the roads just before daybreak made for the most difficult of winter driving conditions, Blaum said.

(Reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis, Kevin Murphy in Kansas City, and Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by David Goodman, Nick Zieminski, Eric Walsh and Cynthia Osterman)

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