Jan 14, 2016 4 min read

McMURRAY – Arthur Ulrich was doing what he normally does any given day – riding his lawn tractor down the driveway of his Bower Hill Road home in Peters Township to collect his mail.

At 95, Ulrich, a retired aircraft mechanic and pilot, was in good shape. He lived by himself, drove to the grocery store and even cooked his own meals.

“I make a mean eggroll,” said Ulrich, a lover of Chinese food.

Ulrich’s only health problem was arthritic knees, hence the tractor. He used a walker in his home and kept a second one in his vehicle.

“I had gone to the doctor on Dec. 14. He told me to come back to see him in April,” Ullrich said last week.

Two days later, his world changed.

“I went to get my mail,” he said.

Around 3:30 p.m. Dec. 16, a driver of a grayish-blue minivan failed to stop at a stop sign in the 600 block of Bower Hill Road.

The driver, identified by witnesses as a white male with gray hair, was allegedly speeding and struck the rear of Ulrich’s tractor.

“I was flipped like a peanut,” Ulrich said. “I was left to die.”

Ulrich said he was conscious and saw the motorist drive away. Peters Township police have been unable to identify the minivan’s driver.

“The department is still aggressively seeking the operator and the vehicle,” said Douglas Grimes, Peters’ deputy police chief. “It is a travesty that someone has yet to come forward.”

Ulrich’s son, Mark, a geologist who lives in Houston, Texas, said his father sustained three broken ribs, two cracked vertebrae and a lacerated kidney.

“He was in a lot of pain,” Mark Ulrich said. “He had a broken back and ribs.”

Initially, Ulrich was taken to Canonsburg Hospital. Because doctors quickly realized he had internal injuries and his condition was critical he was taken by helicopter to Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.

The first few days in the hospital were not easy for Ulrich. He contracted pneumonia, mostly because his breathing was shallow due to the broken ribs, his son said. And at his age, there is a risk of recurrence, the younger Ulrich added.

Ulrich recovered enough to be sent back to Canonsburg Hospital. On Jan. 11, he was moved to ManorCare Health Services in Peters Township for physical therapy. Mark Ulrich said it is still not known how long his father will remain there. The medical bills are being covered by insurance and Medicare, he said.

Ulrich, who is on oxygen and in a wheelchair in his ManorCare room, said there were times he wanted to die, but now he is focused on recovery and would like to return to his home, where has lived since 1959. He said he has 250 pounds of bird seed he needs to use.

“I was existing quite well,” said Ulrich, as he showed a visitor his swollen right hand and arm. “I was still cutting my own grass.”

Mark Ulrich said he does not know if his father will ever be the same independent person he was before the accident, especially given his age and the injuries he sustained.

“I am uncertain whether he can live on his own,” said Ulrich, who has a sister in Long Island and a brother in Flagstaff, Ariz.

“All this is very disappointing,” he said. “He is an old man. The most upsetting thing is that the driver did not stop.”

At the moment, everything is still up in the air for the Ulrich family. Because Ulrich is still susceptible to pneumonia, Mark Ullrich said it is likely he will move in with his family. But, Ulrich is still not well enough to travel by airplane and traveling by car to Houston is out of the question, he said.

“Right now that is the most likely scenario,” he said. “It’s a miracle he is still alive. Fortunately, he got aid immediately.”

Anyone with information on the hit-and-run crash is asked to call the Peters Township Police Department at 724-942-5030.