MOOSIC -- There was another wrong-way driver on Interstate 81 Tuesday morning. This time, troopers said the driver realized her mistake, turned around, and kept going, but not before leaving chain-reaction crash behind her.
There were smashed cars in the shoulder and debris scattered all over the northbound lanes of interstate 81 in Moosic just before 11 a.m. Tuesday. The car that caused it all was nowhere to be seen.
State police said three drivers got into a chain-reaction crash as they reacted to a wrong-way driver.
"It`s terrifying! It really is, because, you know, who expects to see a car coming the wrong way and on a highway like this with both lanes of traffic. I mean, everyone was bumper to bumper, there was no way we could stop any quicker," said driver Julie Lucas of Blakely.
Lucas told Newswatch 16 she was coming from a doctor's appointment when she saw brake lights on the SUV ahead of her.
"I'm trying to brake. I couldn't brake enough, as I was trying to swerve to avoid him I saw this car coming towards us. She was kind of more on the side of the road. And I kind of swerved to get off the road... and then the poor girl behind me just plowed right in to me," she said.
The drivers who were involved in the crash verified what troopers found on a witness dash cam. The wrong way car was a silver Pontiac, the driver an elderly woman.
State troopers said the driver got onto the highway using the exit 182 off-ramp along Montage Mountain Road in Moosic. The ramp is marked with two "wrong way" signs and two "do not enter" signs.
Witnesses also told police the driver did a k-turn in the middle of the Interstate and continued in the right direction - north. Troopers are now looking for the silver Pontiac.
The drivers in its wake, are breathing a sigh of relief.
"I see when it happens in the middle of the night you may not realize it, this is the middle of the day. But, thank God, thank God I'm alive, that's all that matters," Lucas added.
Anyone with information about the wrong way car is asked to call state police in Dunmore.
Get real-time traffic information with the WNEP Traffic Tracker.