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4/30/2008 3:36 AM

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By Scott Beveridge

Staff writer

sbeveridge@observer-reporter.com

The state Department of Public Welfare has launched a routine investigation into a Bentleyville group home for the mentally ill after last week's vehicle accident that killed three of its residents and two staff members.

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The department is looking at a wide range of issues, which include staff training and certification, as well as safety procedures at the Mental Health Association of Washington County personal care home, a welfare spokeswoman said.

The agency conducts such investigations as "standard procedure" any time there is an accident, said Anne Bale, a spokeswoman in Harrisburg.

She said the on-site investigation began Friday, a day after the accident, and also would look into the distribution of medications to residents. The group was en route to the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium in a van when the driver, Sheryl Maiolini, 53, of Charleroi, pulled from Brownlee Road into the path of tractor-trailer traveling on Route 136. Maiolini died at the scene, as did another staff member, Mary E. Watkins, 43, of Ellsworth, and residents John Maise, 61, Richard Paquet, 43, and Julia Hugus, 41.

The last of the funerals was held Monday, for Hugus.

The association's executive director, Lynne Loresch, did not return calls seeking comment Tuesday. Washington County Commissioner Bracken Burns said the investigation "does not connote any wrongdoing or suspicion."

In response to the collision, First Presbyterian Church of Bentleyville will hold an interfaith prayer service at 7 p.m. Thursday.

"It's a community loss. Everyone at least knew them in passing," said the Rev. Andy Scott, the church's pastor. "I did not walk down Main Street (every day) without waving to at least a couple of the guys who were injured," Scott said.

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