HARFORD TOWNSHIP -- State Police in Susquehanna County say three people died in a crash late Saturday night on Interstate 81 near Harford.
According to troopers, a pickup truck driven by Brooks Lee, 44, of Binghamton, New York was traveling north in the southbound lanes.
State police say the pickup hit a minivan with eight people inside. The driver of the pickup died at the scene. Two people inside the minivan were also killed and six others were hurt. Their names have not been released, but are all believed to be from Ecuador.
Investigators believe alcohol played a role in the crash.
State police say a 911 call came in just before the crash, notifying authorities there was a pickup in the wrong lane near the Harford exit.
At this time, police are unable to say when and where the driver of the pickup started traveling in the wrong lanes. They are asking for your help in the investigation. If you know anything, you are asked to call the Gibson barracks at 570-465-3154.
Investigators are also looking for surveillance footage from the businesses at the nearby Lenox exit to try to determine where Lee was before the wreck.
That section of Interstate 81 was closed for 5 hours while state police investigated the deadly crash in Susquehanna County.
Viewer submitted photo of crash on I-81 in Susquehanna County.
For people at nearby Bingham's Restaurant enjoying a Mother's Day meal, it was troubling to hear about another deadly wrong-way crash.
"People have to be more cognizant and pay attention to the signs," said Nicole Bianchi of New Milford. Bianchi lived in Ecuador for a little over a year. "Hearing that it was Ecuadorian people really breaks your heart, especially with all the tragedy they went through in their own country with the huge earthquake."
Tom Gordon of Carbondale saw Newswatch 16's recent special report about how other states like Rhode Island combat wrong-way driving and he thinks it's time to act.
"We should spend some money and do the same thing here," said Gordon. "There's got to be some way around this and it's just too bad it's been happening so often now."
