An accident involving a car and a SEPTA Trolley has left one man dead and two others injured early Friday morning in West Philadelphia’s Cathedral Park neighborhood.
Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small tells CBS News Philadelphia officers and medics were called to the 5100 block of Lancaster Avenue just before 1:30 a.m. for a report of an accident involving a trolley and a car. They found a 32-year-old male victim lying on the sidewalk next to a GMC SUV that had heavy front-end damage. He was pronounced dead on the scene.
Small says preliminary information indicates that the man in the GMC was traveling westbound on Lancaster Avenue and, for some reason, swerved into the eastbound lanes of the roadway, striking the trolley traveling eastbound head-on. The GMC then spun out, the man was ejected and the vehicle came to rest on the sidewalk.
Both the GMC and the SEPTA trolley sustained heavy damage. Small says there were four people, plus the driver, on the trolley at the time. Two people were transported to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries. The driver and the other two passengers were not injured.
The trolley has several interior and exterior cameras that police will be checking as the investigation gets underway. It will be handled by SEPTA Police and the Philadelphia Police Department’s Crash Investigation Unit.
Lancaster Avenue remains closed at this time.
This is a developing story and will be updated.