State police are attempting to locate the driver of a white pickup truck they say fled the scene after allegedly driving erratically before a crash involving several vehicles in the eastbound lanes of I-78, Salisbury Township, around 6 a.m. July 10.

The crash left a tandem tractor-trailer rig straddled over the concrete safety barrier near the stormwater retention pond area of Lehigh Valley Health Network property, a Toyota Avalon trapped under the rig’s second trailer unit and rescue workers marveling how drivers of both the rig and car escaped without serious injury.

Both were transported to the nearby hospital trauma unit for observation and treatment.

The driver of a third vehicle, a Chevrolet Trailblazer, was also transported to the emergency room by Cetronia Ambulance crews.

State police allege the pickup truck driver abruptly changed lanes before the crash, leaving the crash site with vehicles in precarious positions straddling the concrete safety carrier barrier. =

Firefighters, personnel from the Lehigh County Special Operations Team and rescue technicians from Yocum Towing, Whitehall, discussed the safest way to remove the vehicles, while still keeping travel lanes partially open.

Eastbound travel was snarled for miles for several hours until wrecker operators were able to upright the second trailer of the tandem unit and allow that portion of the rig to be towed away.

The 2002 Toyota Avalon was trapped under the trailer rig and as that vehicle was lifted up to the roadway, emergency personnel were confounded that both the tractor driver and the Toyota driver were able to extricate themselves from the wreck, apparently without serious injury.

Seeing how traffic was backed up, and seeking a safer mode of operations, emergency crews and the heavy wrecker workers shifted their efforts onto hospital property, working from the hospital’s perimeter roadway.

Fire police units from Eastern and Western Salisbury and Upper Saucon fire departments, intermittently closed the perimeter road while the remaining tractor and trailer were shifted into a position in the retention pond. Heavy equipment was brought in so workers could unload the trailer’s cargo and allow final recovery of the rig.

Western Salisbury Fire Department command officer Assistant Chief William Sames, was initially stymied in efforts to contact the rig’s shipping company to determine whether the trailers contained hazardous materials.

Lehigh County Special Operations Team Coordinator John Kalynych was called to the scene to help determine if hazardous materials were involved and if the county’s cleanup technicians were needed.

The only cargo that caused any concern was in the second trailer of the tandem rig and that was uprighted and towed from the scene.

Workers were on scene into the afternoon hours before the rescue and recovery operations could be terminated.

State Police Trooper Nathan Branosky is seeking the public’s help in identifying the pickup’s driver who allegedly fled the scene.

Anyone with information regarding the crash was asked to call the State Police Troop M. Fogelsville, at 610-395-1438.