One killed, two injured in I-79 crash
Gideon Bradshaw/Observer-Reporter
I-79 crash
Gideon Bradshaw/Observer-Reporter
Emergency personnel worked the scene of an accident on Interstate 79 in North Strabane Township Thursday afternoon.
A Canonsburg woman was killed in a three-vehicle accident on Interstate 79 in North Strabane Township Thursday afternoon.
State police said the chain of events, in which two others were injured, occurred about 4:30 p.m. near mile marker 43.
Trooper First Class Melinda Bondarenka, a spokeswoman for the agency, said a pickup truck that had been going south crossed the interstate median, where an SUV hit the bed of the pickup. The truck proceeded to collide head-on with a sedan driven by Esther Bernice Davis, 59, who was pronounced dead at 5:18 p.m. at the scene by Washington County Coroner Tim Warco.
Bondarenka said the driver of the pickup was flown by helicopter to a Pittsburgh hospital, and the driver of the SUV was taken by ambulance to a local hospital.
She added troopers are investigating why the truck initially drove over the median. The drivers were the only occupants of the vehicles.
The SUV’s front-passenger side had been ripped open, leaving engine parts visible while it rested in the interstate median. On the other side of the northbound highway nearby, Davis’ car was completely off the roadway. Its rear end perched on an embankment above where the car’s hood was mashed into the front of the pickup.
The cause and manner of Davis’ death were pending an autopsy, Warco said.
The northbound lanes of I-79 in the area were closed to traffic following the accident. Bondarenka said shortly after 7 p.m. she expected the stretch of interstate to remain closed “about an hour” longer while police finished work at the crash site.
Assisting state police were Canonsburg and North Strabane firefighters, Canonsburg EMS and North Strabane police.