All northbound lanes of Florida's Turnpike were shut down in southwest Miami-Dade on Wednesday after a late-morning crash involving three vehicles injured eight people, three of them seriously, in what rescue officials upgraded to a Level 1 mass-casualty event. The Florida Highway Patrol told CBS News Miami the crash happened just before 11:30 a.m. near Southwest 8th Street — the Tamiami Trail — on the northbound side of the Turnpike, which carries the SR-821 designation through Miami-Dade County.

Source: CBS News Miami via GatorCurrent

The vehicles involved were a black SUV, a white work van and a blue Mazda, according to WSVN 7News, whose 7Skyforce helicopter hovered over the wreck near the Southwest 8th Street exit at around noon on Wednesday. The Highway Patrol's first account described the crash as involving the black SUV and the white work van; WSVN's aerial reporting added the blue Mazda as a third vehicle at the scene.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue officials said the call was upgraded to a Level 1 mass-casualty event because of the number of patients. Seven of the eight people who were injured were transported to an area hospital, fire rescue officials said, and three of them — described as suffering serious injuries — were taken to HCA Florida Kendall Hospital. Officials have not released the names, ages or conditions of the injured beyond that description, and no deaths have been reported in connection with the crash.

Closure and diversion on a main Miami-Dade artery

Troopers shut down all northbound lanes near the scene, and northbound traffic was diverted at the 41st Street exit while crews worked. The Highway Patrol urged drivers to avoid the area and seek alternate routes. The Turnpike's northbound lanes through southwest Miami-Dade carry commuters from the Kendall and Tamiami areas toward central Miami and the airport corridor, as well as long-haul traffic heading north out of South Florida, so a full northbound closure in the middle of the day pushed heavy delays onto Southwest 8th Street itself and onto the surface streets feeding it.

Source: WSVN 7News via GatorCurrent

Background: the Turnpike through Miami-Dade

Florida's Turnpike is the state's main north-south toll road, and its Miami-Dade stretch — signed as SR-821, the Homestead Extension — is one of the most heavily travelled freight and commuter corridors in South Florida. The Southwest 8th Street interchange connects the Turnpike with the Tamiami Trail, the east-west road that runs from Miami toward Tampa across the Everglades. Work vans and commercial traffic share these lanes with dense commuter flow all day, and multi-vehicle crashes on this stretch routinely force the kind of full closure and surface-street diversion seen on Wednesday.

For Punjabi truckers and other South Asian drivers who run South Florida freight — produce and imports moving north out of Miami-Dade toward Orlando, Atlanta and the Southeast — the Turnpike is the default northbound route, and a midday full closure near Tamiami Trail is exactly the kind of disruption that costs a driving shift. Drivers heading north on Wednesday were being sent off at 41st Street into local traffic, with the Highway Patrol advising alternate routes until the lanes reopen.

What happens next

The Florida Highway Patrol is the investigating agency and will determine how the three vehicles came together; its traffic-homicide and crash-investigation process in injury crashes of this size typically produces a formal report after vehicles, witnesses and any camera evidence are reviewed. Lane reopening depends on the investigation and on clearing the wreckage and the work van from the northbound lanes. Awaaz Punjab will update this story when the Highway Patrol releases the cause, the identities it is permitted to release, or word that all lanes have reopened.