Belle Vernon area teen accused by troopers in 2020 brick-throwing incident on I-70
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A 16-year-old is charged in Westmoreland County juvenile court in connection with a brick-throwing incident along Interstate 70 in North Belle Vernon last year, state police said.
Trooper Brian McKee said evidence against the teen from the Belle Vernon area culminated with charges of criminal mischief, propulsion of missiles and reckless endangerment being filed against the youth.
McKee said the juvenile was 15 years old at the time of the incident on July 7, 2020.
According to state police reports, the drivers of two trucks, a 64-year-old Maryland man and a 50-year-old Ohio man, had their rigs damaged by bricks thrown from an overpass.
McKee said the Maryland driver suffered a cut on his left arm, but refused treatment. The Ohio truck driver was not injured.
McKee said the investigation is continuing.
In 2015, three boys were arrested for throwing rocks and stones at passing westbound vehicles from an overpass on Interstate 70 in North Belle Vernon. The overpass was off Ferncliff Drive. At least six vehicles were damaged.
No one was hurt.
Incidents of people hurling objects at vehicles have occurred on the busy highway since at least 1995, when a reward was offered for the capture of the “I-70 Maniac” and police patrols were beefed up between the New Stanton and Route 201 exits because a motorist was seriously injured.
Elsewhere in the state, four men were sentenced to prison in 2015 for throwing a rock from an overpass that struck an Ohio woman, causing a severe brain injury. Police said the men threw the rock from an overpass along Route 80 in central Pennsylvania in July 2014.