I-84 west reopens in East Hartford after fiery early morning wreck kills 2, shuts down highway

Two people were killed in a fiery crash early Monday morning on I-84 that led to a 13-hour shutdown of the entire westbound side of the highway in East Hartford.

The crash occurred just after 5 a.m. Monday and completely destroyed a school bus and three tractor trailers, forcing crews to close the highway at the Bulkeley Bridge over the Connecticut River.

The highway did not reopen until the tail end of the evening rush hour at 6:30 p.m. after investigators spent all morning studying the crash and crews spent all afternoon clearing the “devastation” of the charred vehicles and truck contents strewn all over the highway, officials said.

State police have not identified the two victims of the crash. No children were on the school bus at the time, state police said.

The wreck and ensuing fire, which consumed three of the vehicles, did not cause any structural damage to the bridge and the Department of Transportation expected the highway to remain open into Tuesday, spokesman Kevin Nursick said.

Crews are planning to repair “moderate” damage to the asphalt and several bridge expansion joints but will wait to complete that work during low-traffic hours, he said.

“We’re hopeful we’ll be able to put off repairs until a later time when traffic volumes are lower, but if we have anything that concerns us from a safety perspective, we’re not going to chance it,” he said.

The crash happened shortly before 5:10 a.m. Monday when a tractor trailer rear-ended a school bus, state police said. At one point, three vehicles were engulfed in flames.

One rig driver was able to detach the trailer so the flames didn’t spread to his cab, state police Sgt. Dwight Washington said.

He said police don’t know yet why the trucker drove into the back of the bus. There was no precipitation falling at the time of the crash, which happened around dawn.

One tractor trailer was hauling reams of paper, and at least one of the others was carrying food.

The vehicles were completely destroyed and burning pieces of the vehicles and their cargo were strewn across the entire highway.

Coroners and the state police crash investigators spent more than seven hours at the scene, clearing the way for DOT inspectors and cleanup crews to access the crash around 1:30 p.m., Nursick said.

Inspectors found no structural damage to the highway or bridge, but identified needed repairs for the bridge expansion joints and determined much of the area should be milled and repaved, he said.

Crews had hoped to reopen two of the lanes in time for the evening rush hour, but a fire reignited at the scene after 3:30 p.m., requiring firefighters to return to the crash and halting all debris clean up, Nursick said.

“I can’t emphasize enough just how bad the scene is out there,” Nursick said after the second fire.

The west lanes of I-84 remained closed for another three hours after that, causing further traffic headaches into the evening.

Members of the state police Collision Analysis Reconstruction Squad (CARS) were called to the scene to gather evidence for the investigation, and the DOT helped with lane closures, state police said.

Zach Murdock can be reached at zmurdock@courant.com. Christine Dempsey can be reached at cdempsey@courant.com.