2 hospitalized after SUV crashes into Derry Township creek
Share this post:
Two people were “lucky” to avoid more serious injury Monday when the SUV they were in veered off Route 30 and into the rain swollen waters of Loyalhanna Creek in Derry Township, according to firefighters.
The pair were transported by Mutual Aid Ambulance to AHN Forbes Hospital in Monroeville after the 1:53 p.m. accident about a quarter mile east of Kingston in the westbound lanes, according to Bradenville Fire Chief Mark Piantine.
State police in Greensburg were investigating, but a report was not available.
“The water’s not only high, but very cold,” Piantine said.
As the rushing waters pushed the SUV downstream several hundred yards from where it went over an embankment and entered the creek, Piantine said the pair somehow were able to escape the vehicle and enter the water before it overturned. It eventually “became wedged” against a log, he said.
A small portion of one tire on the overturned vehicle protruded from the water, next to the log, and could be seen from the highway.
Later in the day, shortly before 5 p.m., a second crash occurred in nearly the same location, with a vehicle leaving Route 30 and going over a hillside instead of into the creek, according to a Westmoreland 911 supervisor.
Piantine said people in the earlier crash, who were not identified, were somehow able to make it to the creek bank, where they waited for help. They floated downstream from where the SUV became stuck before reaching the creek bank near Kingston Dam at the intersection of routes 30 and 217. Emergency crews said the pair were assisted up the embankment to the ambulance by first responders.
Boat rescue teams from Bradenville and New Alexandria responded, but the retrieval of the vehicle was called off until the waters recede, Piantine said.
“I’m not going to endanger the crews sending them into that high water,” he said.