Dec 8, 2002 By Angie Santello 5 min read

MENALLEN TWP. – Family and friends gathered last night to grieve the death of 18-year-old Heather Lynn Garbutt, who was described by family members as “beautiful, loving, caring and kind.” Garbutt, a 2002 graduate of Uniontown Area High School and an employee of J.C. Penney’s department store in the Uniontown Mall, died early Saturday morning after a two-car collision on New Salem Road near the Kaider Road intersection.

Garbutt was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident at 8:15 a.m., nearly one hour after the crash occurred. According to information from the state police at Uniontown and Fayette County Coroner Dr. Phillip Reilly, Garbutt was traveling north on New Salem Road on her way to work at the Uniontown Mall.

With blonde hair and blue eyes, Garbutt of Buffington could have been a model. According to family, she had plans on traveling to New York in the spring to pursue a career as a fashion designer. They said she always joked about her plans to be an eye-makeup model for a top-notch make-up company and make occasional appearances in magazines.

“Heather had a style of her own,” said Valerie Nicklow, who was warmly called “Aunt Chickie” by Heather. “She loved clothes and fashion. All of her shoes and coats and clothes…everything had to match.”

Called “my little Barbie doll” by her aunt, Sherry Parker, Garbutt was remembered as the one person who would give everyone in her family a kiss and a hug to greet them.

Diagnosed with kidney cancer at the young age of 3, Garbutt heartily fought and won a year-long battle with the disease.

“We celebrated her third birthday at Children’s Hospital,” said Nicklow.

“After radiation treatments and a half of a year of chemotherapy, she kept getting checked and after one check-up she was fine,” noted Heather’s grandmother, Joanne Jordan.

“The admirable thing is that she is never afraid to be different,” said Kathy Lucketti, another of Heather’s aunts.

“I see beauty when I think of Heather,” added Parker. “She looked like a Barbie doll, so thin and with the longest eyelashes. We would laugh and laugh at the things she said. She would say whatever was on her mind, even if it came out sounding silly.”

“When she came into the room, she just brightened it up,” said Nicklow. “Her death… it was just a shock. She cared about people so much and never wanted to see anyone hurt. When we look at her strength and see how she’d pull through the cancer, we remember how she would smile the whole time. She was so resilient.”

Upon negotiating a slight turn in the road, Garbutt’s 1995 Chevrolet Cavalier traveled into the southbound lane. Garbutt then swerved back into her lane in order to avoid a collision with an oncoming vehicle, causing her car to slide sideways into the southbound lane. Due to the sideways spin of her vehicle, Garbutt then collided with the 1991 Chevrolet Blazer driven by 43-year-old Darlene Ann Iadanza, the owner of a Republic store.

Iadanza and her passenger 16-year-old Alexander David Iadanza both sustained minor injuries and were treated at Uniontown Hospital. While Darlene Iadanza was reported to be wearing her seatbelt at the time of the crash, neither Garbutt nor Iadanza’s passenger were wearing theirs, according to state police.

Both passenger and driver’s side airbags were deployed in Garbutt’s vehicle, while Garbutt suffered immediate loss of consciousness and blunt force trauma to the head and neck, which were the causes of her death, said Reilly.

Reilly said that an inquest is planned to further investigate the conditions involved in the accident such as slick roads and ice patches.

He said there were some reports of ice on the road at the time of the accident.

Reilly noted this was the second fatal accident in a week, involving a driver’s side door. Last Saturday, John Nahar, 36, was killed at the intersection of Route 119 and Pechin Road, when another driver hit his side door.

As he said after Nahar’s fatal crash, Reilly maintained that more must be done to protect drivers in such accidents.

“All injuries were on the left side,” said Reilly. “Foam padding, a side air bag or a two-system beam part in place would have helped. I favor the padding as thick as that found in football helmets out of all three. It would be a protective and cost-efficient strategy. No gaps are found in cars now. Thus, there is immediate contact with the seat as the car door is pushed in.”

However, he said such equipment wouldn’t have helped Garbutt, noting she died immediately from the whiplash of the impact. He said a seatbelt, though, would have helped.

Meanwhile, the Garbutt family was still trying to make sense of the tragedy.

“It was like a beautiful flower plucked away,” said Nicklow. “God has reasons though. We know she’s with both of her grandfathers who were also taken away.

“We watched her dad’s family, who were a little distant from one another, come together and we know that this is what God wants. He wants us to love one another,’ added Nicklow.

“God knows she can bring family together,” said Parker. “And she will put it back together.”

Garbutt was born Sept. 12, 1984, in Uniontown, daughter of Matt and Lisa Ritchey Garbutt. In addition to her parents and maternal grandmother, she is survived by a brother, Matthew David Garbutt, at home; and her paternal grandmother, Genevieve Garbutt, both of Buffington; a special boy friend, Allen (A.J.) Jacobs; and many aunts, uncles and cousins.

Friends will be received in the Dearth Funeral Home, New Salem, on Monday after 7 p.m., and on Tuesday from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. A Mass of Christian burial will be offered on Wednesday, at 11 a.m., in the St. Procopius R.C. Church of New Salem.

Interment will follow in Salem View Cemetery, New Salem. A Parish Wake Service will be held, in the funeral home, Tuesday at 3 p.m.