Buttigieg, other officials to visit collapsed section of I-95 in Philly

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will visit the site in Philadelphia on Tuesday where an out-of-control tractor-trailer hauling gasoline flipped over on an Interstate 95 off-ramp, caught fire and destroyed a section of the East Coast’s main north-south highway.

One body was pulled from the wreckage.

Buttigieg was scheduled to meet with city and state officials and to discuss how the U.S. Department of Transportation can help rebuild the roughly 100-foot-long section of I-95, the agency said.

For now, I-95 will be closed in both directions for weeks as the summer travel season starts, upending hundreds of thousands of morning commutes and disrupting countless businesses.

The elevated southbound portion of I-95 will have to be demolished, as well as the northbound side, officials say.

The driver of the tractor-trailer was feared dead, although the coroner has yet to identify the victim. Pennsylvania State Police said a body was turned over to the Philadelphia medical examiner and coroner but did not identify the remains or respond when asked whether they belonged to the driver.

While the remains haven’t been officially identified, family members of the driver, Nathaniel Moody, believe their loved one is the person who was killed.

“I am kind of baffled. I am trying to not cry because I don’t know what happened. I don’t know what happened,” Moody’s cousin, Isaac, told 6abc Action News.

Authorities say the driver was headed northbound, navigating a curving off-ramp when the vehicle went out of control and landed on its side, rupturing the tank.

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