Limerick, Sanatoga Respond to 422 ‘Confirmed Rescue’
LIMERICK PA – Limerick Fire Department members quickly transitioned Sunday (March 5, 2023) at mid-morning from a monthly training exercise to handling two vehicular accident calls, the second of which required shutting down portions of U.S. Route 422 near its Limerick-Linfield ramps.
Montgomery County dispatchers at 11:04 a.m. reported several individuals had been injured in an accident that occurred on eastbound 422, and Limerick firefighters described the call as a “confirmed rescue” involving multiple vehicles. According to reports called in to dispatchers by witnesses, one individual had been ejected from a vehicle, and a second was trapped inside one other.
As of Monday (March 6) at 5:30 a.m. no report was available on the status of those injured, the extent of their injuries, or where they may have been transported. Also, no report on a cause of the crash has been issued by law enforcement officials.
Passers-by at the accident scene near 422 at North Lewis Road, and who commented on a Facebook forum, said they saw cars with “extensive damage” that were “facing in the wrong direction.” First responders were “assisting a person on the side of the road on the ground,” one commenter added.
Limerick sent its Rescue 51, Squad 51, Engine 51, Chief 51, Command 51, and Fire Police 51 vehicles to the scene. Sanatoga Fire Company volunteers also assisted, it said, staging an engine just off 422 in case it was needed. Emergency medical services personnel from Friendship Ambulance of Royersford were among responders treating those at the location.
Dispatchers said they also notified Pennsylvania State Police investigators. Both they and Limerick Township Police were on the scene.
Westbound traffic was diverted by fire police off 422 at the Limerick-Linfield exit, and eastbound at the Sanatoga exit. Witnesses to the clearing vehicles called out an impatient 422 driver who they claimed, rather than wait in backed-up traffic near the accident scene, endangered others by turning around on a shoulder and riding it back down to a nearby exit to leave the highway.
Mangled wreckage depicted at the accident seemed to indicate a high-impact collision occurred, involving the front of one of the vehicles and the rear passenger area of a second. Firefighters were tasked, in part, with removing shards of metal and glass that littered the highway, and with spreading buckets of absorbent over a wide area to contain fluid spills.
The Limerick department posted 59 copyrighted photos taken at the crash. They’re available for viewing on its website, and from its Facebook page.
Photo by The Post
