Oct 21, 2016 2 min read

A Cecil Township man is facing charges after he allegedly overdosed on heroin and then passed out behind the wheel of his car, which sped through a parking lot of a gasoline station Thursday afternoon before crashing into a parked vehicle at an adjacent business.

North Strabane Township police were called about 3:40 p.m. to the Marathon station on Racetrack Road for a report of a man passed out inside a vehicle and not breathing. Police learned that cardiopulmonary resuscitation was being performed on the man, later identified as 26-year-old John Michael Cumpston of 26 Leasure Way, Cecil.

When police arrived, ambulance personnel were administering Narcan to Cumpston as he lay on the pavement outside the passenger side of the car he had been driving. The car had crashed into a pickup truck parked outside Wendy’s, located next to the Marathon. The truck, owned by a Wendy’s employee, was heavily damaged, police said.

Witnesses told police they were in a vehicle in front of the station. One of them said he did not know where the car came from, but that it came flying past at about 30 to 40 mph. The two then heard a loud crash. They ran to the car, and one of them pulled Cumpston, whose lips were blue, out of the car.

Surveillance video from the station showed Cumpston injecting heroin before the crash, police said. He reportedly began to pass out while the car was still running. Police said the car was within feet of gas pumps being used by customers. Found inside the car Cumpston was driving were stamp bags of suspected heroin along with a spoon and syringe, police said.

Cumpston was taken to Canonsburg Hospital, where blood was drawn. Police said he is facing charges of driving under the influence of a controlled substance, reckless endangerment and traffic violations.