McClellandtown residents concerned about intersection
MCLELLANDTOWN – When Melanie Dean heard the crash from a three-vehicle accident at the intersection in front of her house Monday night, she ran outside to see if she could be of any help. One of the cars in the accident, which occurred just before 10 p.m. at the junction of Leckrone-Highhouse and Leckrone-Masontown roads, was carrying three young men who were trapped inside.
A computer technology teacher at Fayette County Area Vocational-Technical School, Dean thought one of the boys was one of her students.
“I thought I knew the driver. I thought he was one of my kids,” Dean said. It wasn’t one of her students, but Dean was still upset.
“It hits too close to home. It’s like they’re my kids. I don’t want to see it. We can’t just walk away,” she said
She tried to help and comfort one of the passengers who appeared to be badly hurt.
“I held his head,” Dean said. “We thought his neck was broken.”
She said as a mother and a teacher, she felt ill at the sight of the injured young men as they sat trapped in the severely damaged car.
“You get that sick feeling in your stomach. I never want to see that again,” Dean said.
State police in Uniontown responded to the accident, but have not identified the three boys because they are juveniles. A report issued by the police the day after the accident said the 16-year-old driver from McClellandtown was in serious condition and the two unidentified passengers were in critical condition in unnamed hospitals.
Dean said he heard that one of the boys has been released from the hospital and another remained hospitalized with major injuries.
The other drivers involved in the accident were Richard B. Hall, 37, of New Salem and Geraldine M. Saluga, 61, of Uniontown, state police said. Police said Hall suffered a moderate injury and Saluga wasn’t injured.
The helicopter that flew one of the boys to a hospital in Pittsburgh landed in the yard of Charles and Sally Campbell’s home, which is the across the street from the Deans.
“It just sounded like an explosion,” Sally Campbell said. “That’s the worst one I’ve seen.”
Melanie and her husband, John Dean, and the Campbells said accidents frequently occur at the intersection.
They are planning to circulate a petition among neighbors and present it to the German Township supervisors along with a request to ask the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to study the crossroads in order to make safety improvements.
“I would do anything the residents want me to do,” Robert Belch, chairman of the board of supervisors, said. “That is a very bad intersection.”
Belch said he has already talked to Mrs. Dean and plans to ask PennDOT to perform a traffic study before the August meeting of the supervisors so he will have something to report to residents at that meeting.
Dean said she doesn’t know what changes would work best, but just about anything would help.
A sign along Puritan Road warns drivers that they are approaching an intersection, but it doesn’t appear to be effective.
The Deans and the Campbells said many drivers apparently don’t see the warning sign at all and don’t see the stop sign until it’s too late to stop.
Many vehicles skid through the intersection before stopping, they said.
They say that too many drivers ignore the 45-miles-per-hour speed limit.
“You can tell they are not going 45,” Melanie Dean said. “They’re flying.”
“Every time we use this intersection it’s a risk,” said Maggie Rugg, a dispatcher for Laidlaw Transit Inc., which provides bus service to the Albert Gallatin School District. “When (students) stand out there to get their bus, they’re at risk.”
The Deans’ son Carey, 8, was nearly hit by a car that “came tearing down there” past the bus after he exited.
Elementary, middle and high school students all have bus stops at the intersection, the Deans said, noting that their 15-year-old daughter also uses the bus stop.
Rugg said a Laidlaw bus, which was not carrying any students at the time, and a pickup truck were involved in an accident at the intersection on the third day of classes last fall.
She has photos showing that the truck came to rest in the Campbell’s driveway and its bed liner landed in the Deans’ yard. Nobody was injured in that accident.
PennDOT statistics list seven accidents at the crossroads in the last six years, resulting in one person receiving a moderate injury, three minor injuries and no fatalities.
Valerie Petersen, spokesperson for PennDOT’s district office in Fayette County, said state police reports indicate that four of the accidents were caused by drivers pulling out too soon, one by an illegal U-turn, one by failing to stop at a stop sign and one by an illegal stop.
She said human error was the cause of most of the mishaps.
PennDOT will study the intersection upon request from the township supervisors.
“If there’s an unsafe situation, let us know,” Petersen said.
The Campbells and the Deans believe there have been many more accidents at the crossroads that apparently weren’t reported to PennDOT.
Sally Campbell said a pregnant woman died in an accident there about 15 years ago.
About two years ago, a small pickup truck and another vehicle collided at the intersection and the truck flipped twice in the air before landing on its wheels in her yard. The driver was not hurt, she said.
She said a truck towing a boat hit a car that was disabled from an accident with another car about two years.
Rugg suggested that installing stop signs at all four points at the intersection accompanied by signage warning drivers that they are approaching a stop sign would go a long way toward making the crossroads a safer place.
Rugg said she believes most accidents are the result of human error, but making the intersection a “four-way stop” would help.
John Dean said brush and weeds around the intersection block motorists’ view as they try to look before pulling out.
He said he cuts the weeds nearest to his house, but other areas should be cleared.
He also said an incline in southbound Leckrone-Highhouse Road just before the intersection limits the time drivers have to react to another driver at the intersection.
Campbell said flashing warning lights might be the answer.
“We’re gonna do something,” Campbell said. “I have to stand out there with a red flag.”
She said she hasn’t yet asked the supervisors to get involved, “but tell them to leave their door open. We’re coming.”
Dean said she is confident that the supervisors will help them make the crossroads safer for everybody.