UPS identifies drivers killed in Pennsylvania Turnpike crash

Company says Daniel Kepner, 53, and Dennis Kehler, 48, were driving together in one of the three tractor-trailers involved in the early morning pileup east of Pittsburgh that left five people dead and about 60 injured.

Three tractor-trailers were involved in a Jan. 5 accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike that left five people dead. Photo: WPXI TV

UPS identified two of its drivers as among the five people killed in Sunday morning’s crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. 

Daniel Kepner, 53, and Dennis Kehler, 48, were driving together in a tractor-trailer out of the UPS’s Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, operations center.

“Our drivers will be missed and our thoughts and prayers go out to their families,” UPS said in a statement to FreightWaves.

Kehler had 28 years of service with UPS, while Kepner had been with the company for five.

Their truck was among the three tractor-trailers involved in the Jan. 5 pileup in the westbound lanes of the Turnpike, 30 miles east of Pittsburgh. About 60 people were also injured in the crash.

The incident occurred about 3:40 a.m. when a tour bus crashed into an embankment. Two of the trucks hit it shortly after, and a third then struck the two tractor-trailers, Pennsylvania State Police said.

UPS did not release any details about a second UPS tractor-trailer that appears to have been involved in the crash, based on photos from the scene of the accident.

A FedEx Ground tractor-trailer also appears to have have been part of the crash, though the company has yet to release any details or information about the drivers.

Both UPS and FedEx pledged to cooperate with investigators and offered sympathies to the victims.

Police have yet to pinpoint an underlying cause of the series of crashes. Investigators are working with the National Transportation Safety Board.

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