Video captures wrong-way driver before fatal crash on PA Turnpike

WASHINGTON TWP., Pa. (WPVI) -- A 50-year-old Bucks County man was killed by a wrong-way driver on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Pennsylvania State Police were dispatched to the I-476 northbound, near mile marker 67 in Washington Township, around 9 a.m. on Sunday after a report of a crash involving a group of motorcycles.

Police say a 24-year-old woman from Perth Amboy, New Jersey, was driving southbound in the northbound lanes when she struck two motorcyclists.

One of the cyclists, identified as John Joseph Sweeney Jr. of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Sweeney was part of a small group of motorcyclists who were traveling on the Turnpike at the time.

A 24-year-old man, also from Bristol, was injured in the crash and taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital Cedar Crest.

Viewer video shared with Action News shows a driver going the wrong way. The person who took the video tells Action News they are too shaken up to go on camera after learning someone died in the crash.

"She blew by me. It's not like she was doing 30. She was doing 70, 80, 90 miles an hour. I was doing 65," said the driver.

The wrong-way driver suffered minor injuries, according to police.

The roadway was temporarily shut down for the investigation but has since been reopened.

Sweeney's death has been ruled an accident.

The coroner's office, the Pennsylvania State Police, and the Lehigh County District Attorney's Office are conducting an investigation.

There are no charges at this time. Police have not released the name of the wrong-way driver.

Anyone who may have witnessed this crash is asked to contact the Pennsylvania State Police Troop T Pocono Station at (570) 443-9511 and reference Incident Number PA2025-379419.